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 vii

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Robin Woellner is a Chartered Tax Adviser and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law
and of the Australian Institute of Management. Robin is currently an Adjunct Professor in
the School of Law at James Cook University and the School of Taxation and Business Law
in the Business School at the University of New South Wales. He has practised in taxation in
the private sector and in the ATO, and has for many years taught revenue law and advanced
revenue law courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as teaching a wide range
of other commercial law subjects. He has been a member of editorial panels on various tax
journals, and is the author/co-author of numerous books, articles and conference papers.

Stephen Barkoczy is a Professor in the Faculty of Law at Monash University. He is

also a member of the Public Advice and Guidance Panel of the ATO and a member
of the Innovation Investment Committee of Innovation and Science Australia. He was
previously a consultant with the law firm, Blake Dawson. Stephen is the author/co-
author of several books and articles on taxation law and is a former editor of the Journal
of Australian Taxation. In 2008, he received the Prime Minister’s Award for Australian
University Teacher of the Year.

Shirley Murphy has taught in the areas of taxation and superannuation law at a number of
tertiary institutions and has acted as a taxation and superannuation consultant to industry
groups. She has written in the areas of taxation and superannuation for many years, is the
co-author of the Australian Master Superannuation Guide, and has contributed over many
years to a wide range of publications including the CCH Australian Master Tax Guide.

Chris Evans is a part time Professor in the School of Taxation and Business Law (Atax) in
the Business School at the University of New South Wales and a part time Extraordinary
Professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He is also an International
Research Fellow at the Centre for Business Taxation at the University of Oxford and at
the Tax Administration Research Centre at the University of Exeter. He is the author/
co-author of numerous books, articles and conference papers, and is the former Editor of
the Australian Tax Review.

Dale Pinto is Professor of Taxation Law of the Curtin Law School at Curtin University in
Western Australia. He is also a Fellow of the Taxation Law and Policy Research Group at
Monash University. Dale is the author/co-author of numerous books, refereed articles and
national and international conference papers, and is on the editorial board of a number
of journals as well as being the Editor-in-Chief of several refereed journals. Dale is a
Chartered Tax Adviser (Life) and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and is Chair
of the Tax Institute’s National Education Quality Assurance Board (EQAB). Dale served
as an inaugural member of the National Tax Practitioners Board and is a current member
of the Board of Taxation’s Advisory Panel and the ATO’s Tax Technical Panel. He was
appointed to the Divisional Council of CPA Australia (WA Division) in October 2014
and is currently Senior Vice-President.

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 viii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Robin Woellner dedicates this book to Gil, Glad, Ruth, Sally, Helen and Cheryl;
Stephen Barkoczy to Mei-Ling, Stephen and Johnny;
Shirley Murphy to Bill and Marjory;
Chris Evans to Kate Collier;
and Dale Pinto to Dudley, Dagmar, Catherine, Joseph and Isaac.

The author and the publisher wish to thank the following copyright holders for reproduction
of their material.
Australian Tax Office (for the Commonwealth of Australia) for extracts; Federal Register
of Legislation for extract from Legislation found at www.legislation.gov.au by Creative
Commons 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/; Lexis Nexis UK for case
extracts from All England Reports (All ER) Reproduced by permission of RELX (UK)
Limited, trading as LexisNexis; Thomson Reuters for extracts from Commonwealth Law
Reports (CLR) and Federal Law Reports (FLR); Wolters Kluwer, CCH for extracts from
Australian Tax Cases (ATC)
Every effort has been made to trace the original source of copyright material contained
in this book. The publisher will be pleased to hear from copyright holders to rectify any
errors or omissions.

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 ix

CONTENTS
Foreword to the First Edition iii
Preface to the Twenty-Eighth Edition v
About the Authors vii
Acknowledgments viii
List of Abbreviations xi
Key Tax Websites xiv

1 Introduction to Income Tax Law 1

2 Tax Formula, Tax Rates and Tax Offsets 56
3 Assessable Income: General Principles 112
4 Income from Personal Exertion 137
5 Income from Property 185
6 Income from Business 215
7 Capital Gains Tax: General Topics 279
8 Capital Gains Tax: Concessions and Special Topics 375
9 Non-assessable Income 445
10 General Deductions 483
11 Specific Deductions 590
12 Capital Allowances and Capital Works 634
13 Tax Accounting 682
14 Trading Stock 736
15 Small Business Entities and Concessions 771
16 Taxation of Partnership Income 794
17 Taxation of Trust Income 824
18 Taxation of Corporate Tax Entities and Their Members 874
19 Corporate Tax Losses, Net Capital Losses and Bad Debts 951
20 Taxation of Consolidated Groups 986
21 Special Taxpayers and Incentive Schemes 1035
22 Taxation of Financial Transactions 1132
23 Superannuation1213
24 International Aspects 1274
25 Tax Evasion, Avoidance and Planning 1442
26 Fringe Benefits Tax 1520
27 Goods and Services Tax 1570
28 State Taxes 1640
29 Administrative Aspects of Taxation 1686

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 x Contents

30 Tax Rulings, Tax Returns and Assessments 1733

31 Challenging an Assessment 1774
32 Collection and Recovery of Tax 1815
33 Offences, Penalties and Regulation of Tax Practitioners 1888
34 Rates and Tables 1950

Table of Cases 1959

Decisions of Boards of Review and AAT (Taxation Appeals Division) 1994
Table of Legislation 1998
Table of Rulings 2059
Index2065

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 xi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
The following abbreviations are used in Australian Taxation Law.

AAT Administrative Appeals Tribunal

AAT Act  Administrative Appeals Tribunal Act 1975
ABN Australian Business Number
ABN Act  A New Tax System (Australian Business Number) Act 1999
ABR Australian Business Register
ADF Approved deposit fund
ADI Authorised deposit-taking institution
ADJRA  Administrative Decisions ( Judicial Review) Act 1977
AFOF Australian venture capital fund of funds
AFTS Report Australia’s Future Tax System Report to the Treasurer
(Final Report of the Henry Tax Review)
ANAO Australian National Audit Office
APRA Australian Prudential Regulation Authority
ATC  Australian Tax Cases (CCH)
ATO Australian Taxation Office
ATR  Australian Tax Review
AUSTRAC Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre
AWOTE Average weekly ordinary time earnings
BAS Business Activity Statement
BELC Broad-exemption listed country
CFC Controlled foreign company
CGT Capital gains tax
COT Continuity of ownership test
CPI Consumer price index
DAC Departure authorization certificate
DFC of T Deputy Federal Commissioner of Taxation
DPO Departure prohibition order
DTA Double taxation agreement
DVS Direct value shift
EST (Australian) Eastern Standard Time
ESVCLP Early stage venture capital limited partnership
ETP Employment termination payment
FBT Fringe benefits tax
FBTAA  Fringe Benefits Tax Assessment Act 1986
FC of T Federal Commissioner of Taxation

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 xii List of Abbreviations

FIF Foreign investment fund

FIFO First in first out
FLA  Family Law Act 1975
FLIC Film licensed investment company
FMD Farm management deposit
FOIA  Freedom of Information Act 1982
FTC Foreign tax credit
FTRA  Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988
GIC General interest charge
GST Goods and services tax
GSTA  A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999
GVSR General value shifting regime
HECS Higher Education Contribution Scheme
HELP Higher Education Loan Programme
IED Income equalization deposit
IGT Inspector-General of Taxation
IRDB Industry Research and Development Board
ISC Insurance and Superannuation Commissioner
ITAA36  Income Tax Assessment Act 1936
ITAA97  Income Tax Assessment Act 1997
ITAR Income Tax Assessment Regulations 1997
ITR Income Tax Regulations 1936
ITRA  Income Tax Rates Act 1986
ITTPA  Income Tax (Transitional Provisions) Act 1997
IVS Indirect value shifting
JALTA  Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers Association
LILO Last in last out
LPR Legal personal representative
LTA  Land Tax Act 1956
LTMA  Land Tax Management Act 1956
MRRT Minerals resource rent tax
OSSA  Occupational Superannuation Standards Act 1987
PAYE Pay-as-you-earn
PAYG Pay As You Go
PDF Pooled development fund
PPLL Paid parental leave levy
PPS Prescribed payments system
PRRT Petroleum resource rent tax
PRRT Act 
Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Act 1987

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 List of Abbreviations xiii

PRRTAA87 
Petroleum Resource Rent Tax Assessment Act 1987
PST Pooled superannuation trust
R&D Research and development
RBA Running balance account
RBL Reasonable benefit limit
RPS Reportable payments system
RSA Retirement savings account
RSAA  Retirement Savings Accounts Act 1997
RSAR Retirement Savings Accounts Regulations 1997
SBT Same business test
SCTACA  Superannuation Contributions Tax (Assessment and Collection) Act 1997
SCTIA  Superannuation Contributions Tax Imposition Act 1997
SGAA  Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992
SGAR  Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Regulations 1993
SGC Superannuation guarantee charge
SGCA  Superannuation Guarantee Charge Act 1992
SISA  Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993
SISR  Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Regulations 1994
SME Small or medium enterprise
SPOR Shorter period of review (taxpayers)
SSAA  Small Superannuation Accounts Act 1995
STCT Small Taxation Claims Tribunal
STS Simplified Tax System
TAA  Taxation Administration Act 1953
TBRL Temporary budget repair levy
TFN Tax file number
TLIP Tax Law Improvement Project
TPTACA  Termination Payments Tax (Assessment and Collection) Act 1997
UAP Uniform administrative penalty
VCA  Venture Capital Act 2002
VCF Venture capital franking
VCLP Venture capital limited partnership
VCMP Venture capital management partnership

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 xiv

KEY TAX WEBSITES

KEY TAX AND TAX REFORM SITES

Australia’s Future Tax System (Henry Tax Review): www.taxreview.treasury.gov.au
Australian Taxation Office: www.ato.gov.au
Board of Taxation: www.taxboard.gov.au
Tax Practitioners Board: www.tpb.gov.au

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Australian Business Register: www.abr.business.gov.au
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC): www.accc.gov.au
Australian Government Entry Point: www.australia.gov.au
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA): www.apra.gov.au
Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC): www.asic.gov.au
Commonwealth Ombudsman: www.comb.gov.au
Department of Finance & Deregulation: www.finance.gov.au
Department of Treasury: www.treasury.gov.au
Inspector-General of Taxation: www.igt.gov.au
Parliament House: www.aph.gov.au
Single Business Service: www.business.gov.au
Tax Issues Entry System (Ties): www.ties.gov.au
Treasurer: www.treasurer.gov.au

STATE AND TERRITORY REVENUE OFFICES

Australian Capital Territory: www.revenue.act.gov.au
New South Wales: www.osr.nsw.gov.au
Northern Territory: www.nt.gov.au/ntt/revenue
Queensland: www.osr.qld.gov.au
South Australia: www.treasury.sa.gov.au
Tasmania: www.treasury.tas.gov.au
Victoria: www.sro.vic.gov.au
Western Australia: www.finance.wa.gov.au

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 Key Tax Websites xv

COURTS
ACT Supreme Court: www.courts.act.gov.au/supreme
Administrative Appeals Tribunal: www.aat.gov.au
Family Court of Australia: www.familycourt.gov.au
Federal Court of Australia: www.fedcourt.gov.au
High Court of Australia: www.hcourt.gov.au
Supreme Court of NSW: www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/sc
Supreme Court of Victoria: www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au
Supreme Court of Queensland: www.courts.qld.gov.au
Supreme Court of Tasmania: www.supremecourt.tas.gov.au
Supreme Court of Western Australia: www.supremecourt.wa.gov.au

OTHER USEFUL SITES FOR SOURCE MATERIALS

Australasian Legal Information Institute: www.austlii.edu.au
Australian Tax Law Library: www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/tax
ComLaw (Commonwealth Law): www.comlaw.gov.au
Worldlii: www.worldlii.org

KEY TAX AND SUPERANNUATION ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANISATIONS

Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA): www.superannuation.asn.au
Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals’ Association of Australia (SPAA): www.spaa.
asn.au
Taxation Institute of Australia: www.taxinstitute.com.au

ACCOUNTING ASSOCIATIONS/ORGANISATIONS
Association of Taxation & Management Accountants: www.atma.com.au
CPA Australia: www.cpaaustralia.com.au
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia: www.charteredaccountants.com.au
Institute of Public Accountants: www.publicaccountants.org.au
National Tax & Accountants Association: www.ntaa.com.au

INTERNATIONAL TAX AUTHORITIES

Canada (Canada Revenue Agency): www.cra-arc.gc.ca
China (State Administration of Taxation): www.chinatax.gov.cn
Hong Kong (Inland Revenue Department): www.ird.gov.hk
Malaysia (Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia): www.hasil.gov.my
New Zealand (Inland Revenue): www.ird.govt.nz

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 xvi Key Tax Websites

Singapore (Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore): www.iras.gov.sg

United Kingdom (HM Revenue & Customs): www.hmrc.gov.uk
United States of America (Internal Revenue Service): www.irs.gov
United States of America (US Department of the Treasury): www.treasury.gov

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 CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Income Tax Law

Overview¶1-000

Historical background: general ¶1-020 – ¶1-045

Introduction¶1-020
Early developments  ¶1-030
Beginnings of the modern taxation system  ¶1-040
Tax resistance through the ages  ¶1-045

Historical background: Australia ¶1-050 – ¶1-070

History of income tax in Australia  ¶1-050
The federal government and income tax  ¶1-060
Between World Wars  ¶1-070

Background issues ¶1-100 – ¶1-115

Taxation and the social process  ¶1-100
‘Incidence’ of taxation  ¶1-110
Tax expenditures  ¶1-115

Functions and objectives of taxation ¶1-130 – ¶1-170

Conventional view of the taxation system ¶1-130
Provision of social and merit goods ¶1-140
Support for those not provided for by the free
market¶1-150
Correcting other free market imperfections ¶1-160
Problems in using taxation for social engineering ¶1-170

Criteria for evaluating a taxation system ¶1-180 – ¶1-232

General outline ¶1-180
Fairness or equity ¶1-185

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 2 Introduction to Income Tax Law

Simplicity¶1-190
Compliance costs  ¶1-193
Certainty¶1-195
Efficiency/neutrality  ¶1-200
Flexibility¶1-205
Evidence¶1-210
Other criteria ¶1-215
Conflict and compromise between objectives  ¶1-230
Overview of the Commonwealth taxation system  ¶1-232

Tax reform initiatives in Australia ¶1-235 – ¶1-250

Criticisms of the current Australian taxation system ¶1-235
Challenges of e-commerce  ¶1-237
Guidelines for tax reform ¶1-240
Options for further tax reform ¶1-250

The current Australian legal system ¶1-310 – ¶1-520

Sources and principles of taxation law ¶1-310
Sources of Australian taxation law ¶1-320
The role of taxation regulations ¶1-520

Constitutional aspects of taxation ¶1-530 – ¶1-620

Distribution of legislative powers  ¶1-530
The Commonwealth’s power to make laws
with respect to taxation  ¶1-540
The concept of a ‘tax’ in s 51(ii) ¶1-550
Prohibition against discrimination between states
or parts of states  ¶1-560
Other constitutional provisions  ¶1-570
Wide effective reach of Commonwealth taxation
power ¶1-580
Section 109: Commonwealth law prevails over an
inconsistent state law  ¶1-595
Removal of the states from the income tax field  ¶1-600
Impact of the GST on Commonwealth–state tax
relations and the vertical fiscal imbalance ¶1-620

 Australian Taxation Law

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 Introduction to Income Tax Law3

[¶1-000] Overview
Before proceeding to a technical analysis of taxation law in later chapters, it is useful
to provide a broader context and perspective on income and other taxes. This overview 1
involves a brief analysis of the history of taxation, its socio-economic and political role and
implications, and the present structure of taxation in Australia.
It is all too easy to lose sight of these wider aspects, and to focus exclusively on the
increasingly intricate technical principles and practices of taxation law. However, taxation
is a social process and, without some understanding of how and why taxation develops and
changes, it is difficult to understand the present system or the dynamics which precipitate
change, or to develop a feeling for likely future changes and directions.
What is a tax?
There are technical definitions of a ‘tax’ for constitutional law and other purposes, which
are discussed at ¶1-550. However, at a general level, the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines
a ‘tax’ as a ‘compulsory contribution to the support of government, levied on persons,
property, income, commodities, transactions etc’, while the OECD defines a tax as ‘a
compulsory, unrequited transfer … to the general government sector’.1
Allan prefers the wider view of tax as ‘any leakage from the circular flow of income into
the public sector, excepting loan transactions and direct payments for publicly produced
goods and services up to the cost of producing these goods and services’.2 This view would
regard profits made by nationalised postal services as taxes levied on postage; and would
also cover ‘taxes in kind’, such as the loss or ‘cost’ to the owner of property compulsorily
acquired by a government at less than free market prices. On this view, pensions and
subsidies would also be seen as (negative) taxes.
There is a wide range of possible taxes—one possible categorisation of common taxes
is set out in Figure 1.1.3

1 In the OECD definition, ‘[taxes] are described as “unrequited” because the benefits provided by the government
to individual taxpayers are not necessarily proportional to their contribution, though the government may use the
revenue generated to provide benefits to the community as a whole, or segments of it’: RF Warburton and PW
Hendy, International Comparison of Australia’s Taxes, Report to the Commonwealth Treasurer, 3 April 2006, 20.
2 CM Allan, The Theory of Taxation (Penguin, 1971) 24; cf R Posner, ‘Taxation by regulation’ (1981) 2(1) Bell Journal
of Economics 22.
3 Adapted from Allan, ibid 29.

Australian Taxation Law ¶1-000

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 4 Introduction to Income Tax Law

Figure 1.1 Common taxes

DIRECT TAXES INDIRECT (CONSUMPTION) TAXES

Income Taxes Property Taxes Sales Taxes Factor Taxes

Personal income tax Death duty Retail or wholesale Payroll tax

Company tax Wealth tax Sales tax Land tax

Poll tax Real estate taxes

Goods and services tax (GST)
Carbon tax
Gift duty Turnover tax
Inheritance taxes
Purchase tax

Expenditure tax

Stamp duties

Customs and excise

Profits from government-
run industries

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: GENERAL

(¶1-020 – ¶1-045)
[¶1-020] Introduction
It has long been recognised that a democratic government needs to raise revenue in order
to govern effectively, and that one of the most effective means of raising this revenue is by
the imposition and collection of taxes.4 Indeed, as Mills observes:
It is one of the empirical certainties of history that no structural society has ever arisen
without taxation. [The] power of taxation is one which is particularly liable to abuse
… but without that power no Government … is possible. ‘The power to tax is the one
great power upon which the whole national fabric is based. … It is not only the power to
destroy, but the power to keep alive.’5
It is not surprising, therefore, that attitudes to taxation vary radically. At one extreme,
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes ( Jr) observed in Compania de Tobacos v Collector that ‘taxes
are what we pay for civilized society’.6 This view was echoed more recently by the Hon Bill
Shorten, who commented in 2011:

4 Warburton and Hendy, above n 1, 20; Star City Pty Ltd v FC of T 2007 ATC 5216, 5239 (Gordon J).
5 S Mills, Taxation in Australia (Macmillan, 1925) 1, Isaacs J in R v Barger (1908) 6 CLR 41 quoting Nicol v Ames
[1899] USSC 82; 173 US 509, 515.
6 275 US 87 (1904), 100.

¶1-020
 Australian Taxation Law

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 Introduction to Income Tax Law5

With taxes you buy civilisation … Taxes fund the provision of goods and services that

1
the private sector cannot or will not provide, but are of crucial importance to the way we
live … [and also] provide us with resources to pay for vital community services such as
roads, hospitals and medical care, schools, colleges and universities, defence of the nation,
courts, police, museums, libraries, sporting facilities, [and] parks.7

Not all commentators have been so positive. A more cynical view is that the ‘art of
taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with
the least amount of hissing’,8 and it has also been said that ‘there is one difference between
a tax collector and a taxidermist—the taxidermist leaves the hide’.9
Whatever view one takes, an understanding of the history and dynamics of taxation
is important—the lessons of the past can be instructive for modern proposals and reforms,
and many of the older taxes have their modern equivalents. The politicians and citizens of
different countries and times have shared many of the visions and problems which modern
taxation systems still face—questions of tax equity, simplicity, incidence and efficiency
have been perennial difficulties, as have the existence and implications of tax avoidance
and evasion (see ¶1-045 for a definition of these terms).
The main focus of this book is on income tax, and the following segment accordingly
deals mainly with the development and introduction of the Australian income tax. The
goods and services tax (GST) which changed the face of taxation in Australia is dealt with
in Chapter 27; state taxes are dealt with in Chapter 28; and CGT and FBT are dealt with
in Chapters 7–8 and 26 respectively.

[¶1-030] Early developments

Taxation has been part of organised society for much of recorded history.10 In early times,
the emphasis was on indirect taxes. In ancient Persia, for example, taxes included tributes
paid as a proportion of produce and by the provision of personal service, as well as dues
paid at ferries and market places.
Customs duties (portoria) were levied by Roman kings up to the 7th century BC,
reintroduced together with a broad-based excise tax by the Emperor Augustus in the
Roman Empire,11 and brought by the Romans to Britain upon its conquest. Other Roman
taxes included consumption taxes and, under Julius Caesar, a 1% general sales tax, as well
as a ‘head’ tax (later extended to land holdings) and temporary property taxes levied in
times of war to support the state’s military needs.

7 ‘What We Get for our Taxes’, Address to the Taxation Institute of Australia, 26th National Convention, Brisbane,
4 March 2011, 1.
8 Jean Baptiste Colbert in JP Smith, Taxing Popularity: The Story of Taxation in Australia (Federalism Research Centre
ANU, 1990).
9 MM Capwell, Time Magazine, 1 February 1963; cf McPherson JA in Macpherson v FC of T 99 ATC 4014, 4021.
10 Smith, above n 8; S James, Self-Assessment and the UK Tax System (The Research Board of the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England and Wales, 1995) 11–19; Rise of Parliament—Archives, ‘Taxation’, www.national archives.
gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/rise_parliament/tax.htm (accessed 11 October 2016).
11 Mills, above n 5, 3–4, observes that although the Roman people were nominally untaxed in the intervening period,
they ‘voluntarily’ contributed large amounts for public purposes.

Australian Taxation Law ¶1-030

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 6 Introduction to Income Tax Law

Other taxes followed: in England a ‘subsidy’ on goods and land was levied in the early
Middle Ages, while the ‘Danegeld’ (a form of land tax based on the amount of land held)
was originally levied in times of emergency as a direct tax on landowners,12 but became a
regular tax under the Norman kings until it was abolished in the 12th century.13
Other taxes levied in medieval England included ‘scutage’ (‘shield money’, 1159–
1332), which was payable by a feudal landowner in lieu of military service in the King’s
army. There were also taxes on movable goods, beginning with the ‘Saladin tithe’, levied
in 1188 to fund the Crusade against the Saracens, which was the forerunner of modern
property taxes.
In the early 17th century, ‘ship money’ was levied by the Stuart kings for the defence
of the realm, and poll taxes were also levied from time to time as required.14

[¶1-040] Beginnings of the modern taxation system

In 1715, customs and excise duties produced some 73% of total English tax revenue, and
this proportion grew to 82% by 1755. The heavy reliance in England on indirect taxation
of goods continued up to the end of the 18th century. During this period, English taxes
were levied mainly on the external indicia of wealth; for example, the ‘window tax’ of 1696
levied a progressive tax based on the number of windows in a house, while the ‘assessed
taxes’ were levied on carriages, female servants, racehorses, hair powder, clocks, watches
and the like.
Direct taxation and income tax did not become a regular feature in England until
the 19th century, and even then direct taxation was usually imposed only when additional
revenue was needed for extraordinary purposes; for example, during times of war or other
social upheaval.
One reason for the ad hoc nature of taxes up to the 19th century may have been a
lack of the administrative infrastructure and expertise necessary for the efficient control
of an ongoing broad-based system of taxation. Indeed, until the 17th century, it was not
uncommon for the Crown to sell the right to collect taxes to private individuals (‘farming
the revenue’), as had been the case in ancient Rome. It was not until the latter half of
the 17th century that the practice ceased, and government officials (‘inspectors’) were
appointed to administer and collect taxes.
Gradually, an efficient staff and system of taxation administration began to develop
in England, and by the end of the 18th century the administrative machinery for regular
taxation was in place. However, as so often happens in the history of taxation, the final
impetus came from a national emergency.
Introduction of income tax
By 1798, the armies of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte controlled continental Europe.
England and its allies were hard-pressed to resist the French advance, and widespread

12 For example, in the 10th century in order to raise funds to buy off Scandinavian pirates.
13 It was replaced by the ‘carucage’, a regular tax levied on a similar basis.
14 For example, the poll tax of 1380 was levied to meet the cost of the King’s bad financial management and military
extravagance: BEV Sabine, A History of Income Tax (George Allen & Unwin, 1963) 12.

¶1-040
 Australian Taxation Law

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 Introduction to Income Tax Law7

evasion by taxpayers meant that the 1797 ‘triple assessment’ on ‘taxable establishments’

1
had failed to produce adequate revenue to support the War.
William Pitt, who was Prime Minister of England at the time, viewed a tax on
incomes as ‘repugnant to the customs and manners of the nation’. Nevertheless, the
desperate military situation forced Pitt to impose a general tax ‘on all the leading branches
of income’.
Ironically, in light of subsequent developments, Pitt justified the move to an income
tax on the basis of the need ‘to prevent all evasion and fraud’ which had plagued the triple
assessment.
The first Income Tax Act (in 1799) was only moderately successful in its revenue-
raising aims, yielding some 50% of targeted revenue. With the temporary peace following
the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, the tax was abolished, but renewed hostilities with the
French shortly afterwards saw the reintroduction of income tax under the pseudonym of
‘duties on land and property’. The Income Tax Act 1803 introduced the concept of the five
schedules or categories of taxable property which still characterises the English taxation
system, as well as the concept of deduction of tax at source for certain classes of income.15
The 1803 income tax was repealed in 1816, apparently because it was feared that the
tax might become a permanent feature, and a ‘potential instrument of tyranny’.
England remained free of income tax until the next social crisis, in 1842. Then, at
a time of great commercial depression and social unrest, Sir Robert Peel reluctantly felt
compelled to impose a tax on incomes at a maximum rate of some 3%. The tax was intended
to be an experiment for three years only, but the ‘experiment’ has survived (with various
modifications) to the present day—a story by no means unusual in the taxation context.

[¶1-045] Tax resistance through the ages

From the earliest biblical times, taxes and tax collectors have been unpopular, and historical
commentaries suggest that some people have always tried to evade or avoid the payment
of taxes.
Not surprisingly, therefore, taxes and taxation systems have regularly been the cause
of heated (and sometimes violent) controversy. The Boston Tea Party, with its slogan of
‘no taxation without representation’, is perhaps the best-known ‘revolt’ against perceived
tax injustices. However, the Stuart ‘ship money’ taxes were a factor contributing to the
outbreak of the English Civil Wars in the 1640s; and the poll tax introduced by the British
Thatcher Government was widely seen as a factor in that government’s fall.
While many tax protests are symbolic, this is not always the case: during the
1381 ‘Peasants’ Revolt’ in England, a group of citizens aggrieved at a poll tax and oppressive
collection methods cut off the Chief Justice’s head and paraded it round Bury St Edmunds
on a pike; frustrated taxation reform was a factor in the onset of the French Revolution;
and the imposition of miners’ licence fees was a factor in the bloodshed of the Eureka
Stockade rebellion on the Ballarat goldfields in 1854.

15 This latter concept is still used in the Australian taxation legislation today (eg in the PAYG system: see ¶32-405ff ).

Australian Taxation Law ¶1-045

01_WOE_ATL28_10653_TXT_5pp_PPS.indd 7 5/12/2017 9:26 am

 8 Introduction to Income Tax Law

A more subtle but equally significant revolt against taxation is through tax avoidance
(the creation by legitimate means of a situation in which a taxpayer is liable to pay less
or no tax) or tax evasion (the intentional non-declaration of income or over-claiming of
expenditure or other benefits).
In a sense, tax avoidance/evasion ‘is the Siamese twin of the charge to tax in any
system based upon certain statutory enactment. No other area of the law touches human
activity at so many points, so that it is scarcely surprising that tax avoidance should be so
widespread and ingrained in our consciousness’.16
Tax avoidance and evasion are not new. The actions of 17th-century English taxpayers
who sought to avoid the window tax by blocking up windows until the tax collector had
gone and then reopening them were merely somewhat less subtle predecessors of the tax
avoidance schemes of modern times.
Yet however understandable tax avoidance and evasion may seem from some
perspectives,17 they can have serious consequences for the equity of a taxation system. For
example, the underground or untaxed ‘cash’ economy in Australia has been estimated as
at least 1.5% of GDP; that is, around $254 billion pa,18 with organised crime estimated
to account for around $15 billion pa.19 This means that billions of dollars in tax revenue
are lost each year through evasion, and this lost revenue must then be made up by other
means; for example, by imposing higher rates on those who do pay tax.
In response, a number of national governments have in recent years taken strong
steps to block egregious tax avoidance and evasion—see, for example, ¶33-221—while,
ironically, at times themselves using the lure of tax benefits to attract taxpayers to their
jurisdictions.
Chapter 25 considers tax evasion and avoidance in more detail.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: AUSTRALIA

(¶1-050 – ¶1-070)
[¶1-050] History of income tax in Australia
Early taxes
Although the different Australian states had levied taxes of various types from the time of
their establishment, the first income tax in Australia (on land and incomes) was introduced
by the South Australian Government in 1884. The history of income tax in Australia began

16 A Thompson, ‘Some thoughts on tax avoidance’ (1978) New Law Journal 629.
17 RW McGee, K Devos and S Benk, ‘Ethical attitudes toward tax evasion: A cross cultural study between Turkey and
Australia’, paper presented to the Australasian Tax Teachers Association Conference, University of Adelaide, 19–21
January 2015.
18 Treasury, Black Economy Task Force—Interim Report, March 2017, 13–14; Measuring Tax Gaps in Australia, 2014–15;
Commissioner of Taxation, Annual Report 2015–16, 43–4, Tables 2.8, 2.9.
19 Inspector-General of Taxation, Review into the ATO’s Use of Benchmarking to Target the Cash Economy, Report to the
Assistant Treasurer, July 2012, 5–8; cf Commissioner of Taxation, Annual Report 2013–14, 56–7.

¶1-050
 Australian Taxation Law

01_WOE_ATL28_10653_TXT_5pp_PPS.indd 8 5/12/2017 9:26 am

Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of At the back of the

world
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States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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eBook.

Title: At the back of the world

Wanderings over many lands and seas

Author: George Pugh

Jennie Pugh

Release date: September 5, 2023 [eBook #71571]

Language: English

Original publication: UK: Lynwood and Co., Ltd, 1913

Credits: Gary Baker

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AT THE

BACK OF THE WORLD ***
At the Back of the World
“He had my billy of water to his mouth and was pouring
it down his throat.” Page 195
 AT THE BACK OF
THE WORLD
Wanderings over many Lands and Seas
BY
GEORGE and JENNIE PUGH
LONDON
LYNWOOD & CO., LTD.
12 PATERNOSTER ROW
1913
 CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE

I I go to Sea 7
II The Making of a Sailor 21
III A Burning Ship 35
IV New Friends 44
V Stormy Weather 50
VI The Southern Cross 69
VII The Stone Begins to Roll 66
VIII Various Kinds of Storms 75
IX Christmas at Sea and George the Greek’s
Story 82
X Rounding Cape Horn 98
XI Callao and San Lorenzo 108
XII The Capital of Peru 121
XIII On the Oroya Railway 129
XIV Life on the Andes 139
XV The Cost of Liquor and my Return to Lima 151
XVI I go Back to the Sea Again 163
XVII “Eastward Ho!” 170
XVIII Lost in the Bush 186
XIX Life at Belmont—Sharks and Flying Foxes 203
 XX Snake Stories—Two Brave Girls 214
XXI Widow Smith’s Pig, or “Barkis is Willin’” 222
XXII A Dangerous Enterprise 229
XXIII A Leaky Old Tub and Retribution or Villainy
Rewarded 241
XXIV Off to the Palmer Goldfields 265
XXV We Return to Cooktown 284
XXVI A Trip to the Cannibal Islands and Captain
Brown’s Story 294
XXVII Homeward Bound 310
At the Back of the World
 CHAPTER I

I Go To Sea

As far back as I can remember the sea had a strange fascination for
me, and if, as is the custom with old people to ask a boy, however
small, what he is going to be when he is a man, I invariably
answered “a sailor of course.” At school the lessons I liked best were
geography, and the only books that interested me were those that
told of travel in foreign lands. Born in Liverpool, that city by the sea,
and living, for the first fourteen years of my life, within a mile of the
docks, it was no wonder that I was passionately fond of the water,
and all my spare time was spent at the docks talking to the sailors,
amongst whom I had heaps of friends. The tales they told me of what
they had seen in foreign lands, and the wonders of the deep made
me long to grow up as quickly as possible, but it was not until I was
fourteen that the opportunity came, and that in a curious way.
I had by that time become a great strong lad for my age, and was
tired of school, so one day another school companion and I played
truant and went down to the docks. After playing about for some
time, we thought we would swim across the Mersey and back. I was
a capital swimmer, and thought nothing of the feat, but my
companion had not been across before. However, we got across
splendidly, and after resting a little while we started back, following in
the wake of one of the ferry boats. I reached the Pier Head wall first,
and turned round to look for my companion—he was nowhere to be
seen. I at once told the dock policeman, who took me along to the
River Police Office, and after taking my name and address, and
sending the men out with the boats to search for my missing friend,
he gave me a jolly good thrashing and told me to get back into the
water and look for the lad. I looked at him in astonishment, for I was
feeling tired, and the thrashing had not refreshed me.
“Go along, now,” he said in stern tones, “and don’t you come back
until you find that boy.”
“But I shall be drowned if I do that, I’m tired, sir,” I said.
“A good job, too,” he replied, “and then you’ll find him safe
enough.”
For a few minutes I stood looking at him as he sat at his desk
writing, and then he turned round as I walked slowly to the door.
“Come here,” he said sternly, looking me up and down until I felt fit
to creep into a mouse-hole.
I stood before him expecting another thrashing.
“Have you a father living?”
“No, sir,” I answered.
“A mother?” he asked, his voice a little less stern.
“Yes, sir, and two sisters.”
“Well, you go straight home from here. I have already sent your
mother word. I hope she will have sense enough to give you the best
thrashing you have ever had in your life, and tell her from me to send
you to sea. What you want is work, and plenty of it, and remember
this—if ever I catch you round these docks again I’ll lock you up.”
When I reached home I found a warm welcome awaiting me, but
not the same one as that given to the “Prodigal Son,” and I was glad
enough to escape to my bedroom, feeling that I had got more than I
deserved.
The next morning my mother said I need not go to school any
more. “You shall go to sea,” she said, “so get your cap and take this
note to Captain Watson, he was an old friend of your father’s, and I
sincerely hope he will get you on a ship, or there will be nothing but
unpleasantness before you for a while, they have not found Harry
Law’s body and his people are in a dreadful state and blame you,
which is quite natural.”
I made no answer, knowing that it was true, and feeling quite
determined in my own mind that if Captain Watson could do nothing
for me I would go and ask on every ship in the docks until I was
successful.
 When I arrived at Captain Watson’s house at Seaforth, there was
no mistaking it, standing as it did in a small garden full of flowers,
with a tiny grass plat facing the river, a flagstaff from which a Union
Jack was fluttering in the breeze, and over the doorway in white
lettering “The Mariners’ Rest” was painted.
On my asking for the Captain I was at once taken to him. After
reading the letter the old sea-dog gazed at me out of the corner of
his eye, then he laid his long pipe on the table.
“And so you want to go to sea, do you, how old are you?”
“I am turned fourteen, Captain, I would rather go to sea than
anything else, would you tell me how to get a berth as apprentice?”
“I can tell you something about the life of an apprentice, my boy,
and when I’ve done I think you’ll give up that notion. Your mother in
her letter says you will have to depend on yourself, and a good job
too, and the sooner you are able to do this the better for both of you.
Most of the good firms, whose vessels sail out of Liverpool and
London require a premium with a boy—generally speaking it
amounts to fifty pounds, and this is paid back in wages during the
four or five years’ apprenticeship. Half the boy’s time is spent in
dancing attendance on the master and mates, doing the meanest
work on the ship, that is if any work can be called mean, cleaning
brasses, etc., and when his time expires often he is unable to put two
ends of a rope together in a seamanlike manner.”
At this my heart sank, but the Captain went on:
“You must go in a small ship as an ordinary seaman where every
man and boy has to do his share of the work, and then you will soon
learn your business, and make a man of yourself. The premiums that
are charged for boys are a fraud imposed on the parents, and a
gross injustice for which there is no excuse.”
After a few puffs he resumed—“If anyone speaks to the ship-
owner about it, he replies, ‘Oh, he cannot earn his keep the first two
years.’ But that’s not true. They pay nothing for that boy, but if he
were not on board they would require another boy or man, and the
owners would have to pay port wages, so you see the fact of his
being on board making up the complement of the crew is a gain to
the owner.”
 “Another thing—the Board of Trade stipulate that a ship shall carry
a certain number of hands, but they do not say they must all be
sailors, neither do they specify their ages. Many a good ship has
been lost through having too many boys and too few men on board
her. On these big ships the seamen get all the real good sailor work
to do, such as knotting, splicing, strapping blocks, etc., and the dirty
work falls to the lot of the apprentices. The officers often, finding so
few seamen and so many duffers on board, vent their spleen on the
boys, forgetting that it is the owners’ and not the boys’ fault.” Captain
Watson grew warm on his subject, and it was pretty plain that he had
suffered as an apprentice in his younger days.
“I know a ship,” he continued, “a four-masted vessel that carries
nearly six thousand tons of cargo, a beautiful ship, heavily rigged,
which goes to sea with a crew all told of thirty-eight hands. A fairly
good number anyone would think! Yes, but notice how they are
made up”—here he ran them off his fingers—“Captain, two mates,
carpenter, sailmaker, boatswain, steward, cook, sixteen able
seamen, and fourteen apprentices. The first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth
and seventh sleep in all night in ordinary times and weather, thus
leaving one officer, eight able seamen and seven apprentices to
work the ship at night. Ah, it’s shameful! But you meet me at noon at
the ‘Mercantile Marine Rooms,’ and I will see if I can get you a berth
from some of my old shipmates.”
While Captain Watson had been talking, my eyes had been
roaming round the room. It was a wonderful room, more like a
museum than a living room. Catching sight of my wandering eyes he
laughed a big hearty breezy laugh. “Ah, my boy,” he said, “these are
some of the things you’ll see in other lands. See that ship,” he said,
pointing to a picture of a full rigged ship in a seaway, “that was the
first ship I was master of, she was called the ‘North Star’ of
Liverpool, a better ship never sailed. These boxes of shells hanging
on the wall came home in her from the West Indies, the boxes of red
and white coral are from the East Indies, now look here, this is a
case of flying fish, and what people call sea horses; the flying fish
came aboard, but the sea horses were caught by one of the
apprentices by hanging a piece of teased out rope over the side, and
the little things get caught in it, they don’t live many minutes when
they are taken out of the water as the air kills them. Now this is a
queer weapon,” he said, pointing to what looked like a bone sword,
“it’s the sword of a fish called by that name, and was taken out of a
whale that had been killed by that swordfish and a thrasher, two
sworn foes of the whale, and in the tussle the sword had been
broken off and left in the whale’s carcass, that was in the tropics.
That is a shark’s jaw on that black velvet mount, look at his teeth, no
work there for a dentist, he likes to sharpen them on the good fat leg
of a cow or pig, or a sailor who tumbles overboard through not
looking out where he can hold on in safety to the rigging. These
Indian spears, clubs, and bow came from Brazil, and this boomerang
from Australia. It is a deadly weapon in the hands of a native, and I
have seen one thrown in such a manner that it returned to the hand
of the one who threw it. These cedarwood boxes and inlaid trays and
little cabinet came from China and Japan, so you see my lad what
you can expect when you go to sea and have learnt your business. I
always made it a rule to bring some little thing from every foreign port
I went to, and as my wages grew so did my curiosities. There is one
other thing I want to show you, it is in the garden, it is the figurehead
of another old vessel I was in, ‘The Maori Chief,’ a fine figurehead for
as fine a ship as ever sailed on salt water.”
“And now my lad,” he said, when I had duly admired everything,
both in that wonderful room and in the garden, “give my respects to
your good mother, and tell her I will do my best to get you a ship, and
after that it rests with yourself.”
I thanked him heartily, and set off home with a light heart, and a
mind full of what I had seen and heard. I was overjoyed at the
prospect of seeing other lands and scenes, lands full of mystery and
possibilities. My mother was pleased at my success, and she and my
sisters began at once to get my clothes ready, while I told them of all
the wonderful things I had seen at Captain Watson’s.
There was little sleep for me that night—my mind was full of the
future and what it might hold for me. I got up early, and after a good
breakfast went to Water Street. Finding it was two hours off noon, the
time it was arranged for me to meet Captain Watson, I went over to
Prince’s Dock, and admired the vessels loading there, and wondered
if it would be my good fortune to get a berth on one of them, and so
passed the time until noon, when I went to the “Marine Society’s
Rooms,” and asked for Captain Watson. He was there waiting for me
and introduced me to Captain Crosbie of the barque “Bertie,” then
loading in the Salthouse Dock and bound for Wellington, New
Zealand. He was a smart, well-set man, one of the smartest men I
have ever been with, tall, alert, with not an ounce of spare flesh on
him, hair as black as night and a pair of eyes like gimlets that
seemed to be looking both at you and in you.
“Um, ah,” he said, “you want to go to sea, do you, what for?”
“I want to see foreign lands, sir,” I answered, “and I want to be a
sailor.”
“You want to be a sailor, um. You want to look for trouble evidently.
How old are you?”
“Turned fourteen, sir.”
“Well you’re big enough anyhow, and you look strong enough.
Fond of work, eh?”
“I’ll do my share, sir.”
“I’ve no doubt you’ll do that and a bit over, remember a sailor’s life
is not all sunshine and blue skies like you read of in books, there are
stormy nights and days, and times when you have to hold on by the
skin of your teeth. How would you like to be sent up aloft in a gale of
wind, eh? I expect you’d wish yourself back on shore, there’s no
back door at sea you know.”
“Well, sir, I’d have to do the same as the rest, and do the best I
could.”
“Yes, you would, and perhaps your best wouldn’t be thought much
of and you’d get a rope’s ending, or a kick or a cuff into the bargain,
eh?”
I looked at him. “It seems to me, sir, that everybody thinks that all
boys are good for is to be kicked and cuffed, my old grandfather
used to say ‘when you meet a lad thrash him, if he doesn’t deserve it
then he soon will.’”
They both laughed heartily.
“Was he a sailor?” Captain Crosbie asked.
“No sir, he was a farmer.”
 “Well he ought to have been, he understood human nature as
regards boys.”
I thought differently but said nothing.
After a few more questions Captain Crosbie engaged me as
ordinary seaman at twenty-five shillings per month, and I was to join
the ship the next morning. I thanked him heartily and wishing them
both good day left the room. What a man I felt as I wended my way
home, what castles I built in the air, I was to be a sailor and some
day a captain, of that I felt sure, so full of hope is youth, and it is well
that it should be so, for has not one of our poets said:—

“A boy’s will is the wind’s will,

“And the thoughts of youth are long long thoughts.”

When I reached home my mother was very pleased at my

success, and that night we had a long talk.
“My boy,” she said, “you are about to enter life’s battle on your own
account, and your future will largely depend on yourself. You have no
earthly father to give you wise counsel and advice; I have had to be,
as far as I have been able, father and mother to you and the girls.
You are starting with a bright prospect, but remember always that
God sees you at all times, never do anything you would be ashamed
for Him to see. You have chosen, and I have chosen for you, a
sailor’s life; take Lord Nelson as your pattern, the greatest sailor, and
one of the best Christians who ever lived, and all will be well. Do
your work, however hard it may seem, not only for man but for God,
then nothing can really harm you. Keep from the drink and bad
companions. Never be ashamed of your Bible, your prayers, or your
God. Let us kneel together and ask God’s blessing on your new life,
for without that it is useless to expect either health or prosperity. I
shall look for your letters you may be sure, and will do my best to let
you have some in return.” We knelt in prayer, and oft-times in later
years the memory of that hour came back to me with renewed help
and comfort.
The following morning, after saying good-bye to my mother and
sisters, and hearing, just as I was leaving the house, that the body of
Harry Law had been found, which rather upset us all, I joined the
“Bertie.” She was a strongly built wooden barque of 1,500 tons, and
was in splendid condition. She was a perfect picture; all her yards to
the royals were crossed, the white lines of her sails harbour-stowed,
and each bunt tied up in fine style, all her running rigging was rove,
the red ensign languidly shook at the peak, while the blue Peter lay,
for want of air to expand it, like a streak of blue paint down the fore-
royal mast. I felt my heart swell with pride as I went on board and
realised that at last I was on the deck of a ship and that I was one of
the crew who were to help to take her across the ocean.
The first mate, Mr. McLean, “Old Barnacle” the sailors called him,
came forward and asked me what I wanted and seemed not ill-
pleased at my answer. He was a rough, hard-looking Glasgow man;
he had commanded several ships in his time, but the terrible curse of
drink had pulled him down like a good many before him. He had lost
one ship and berth after berth, until he was glad to take a first
officer’s place. Once at sea, and out of reach of the liquor, a better
seaman could not be found, and beneath that rough exterior a kind
and loving heart beat.
The second mate, Mr. Weeler, was a splendid specimen of the
British seaman. Trained on the “Worcester,” that noble institution on
the Thames, from which so many of our gallant seamen have made
their start, he had just obtained his chief-mate’s certificate. He was a
good friend to me, and to any boy who came under his charge, an
honest, upright, good-living man. Our crew were mostly
Scandinavians, and a quiet, hard-working lot of men.
We sailed out from Liverpool that day, the 1st of July, 1870. As
soon as Captain Crosbie came on board preparations were made for
leaving the dock. It was a beautiful day, the sun shone brightly
overhead, the river Mersey lay calm and peaceful, leading out into
the great unknown sea beyond, everything was new and strange to
me, and never shall I forget the feelings that came over me as we left
the docks behind us. As I watched the sailors jumping to obey orders
to let this or that rope or sail go, I wondered how long it would take
me to learn them all, and how proud I was to answer to the call,
“here boy, lend a hand,” and did my best to be a help instead of a
hindrance whilst we were getting clear of the channel.
 On the first day out I was seasick and felt pretty bad, when the
chief officer came along and saw me leaning against the ship’s side.
“Hello,” he said in his gruff way, “looking for New York, boy; had
your dinner?”
“No, sir, only I feel queer and don’t want any dinner.”
“What is the dinner forrard to-day?”
“Hash, sir.”
“Now look here, you just go along to the galley and ask cook for a
good basinful and bring it here to me.”
I did as I was told and brought it to him, and, to my surprise, he
made me eat it. I had no sooner got it down than I had to rush to the
ship’s side.
“Go and get another basinful,” he commanded, “and eat every bit,
or I’ll give you your first taste of a rope’s end, now go.”
I went, and never shall I forget the feeling of loathing with which I
ate that food. I started again for the ship’s side, when he caught hold
of me. “No you don’t,” he said, “sit there and keep it down, and you’ll
never be seasick again; if you don’t you’ll have to eat another lot.”
Manfully I tried to keep it down and succeeded, but for a few days I
felt squeamish, then it passed off, and I soon felt myself again.
 CHAPTER II

The Making of a Sailor

Before we had been out at sea a fortnight I was able to climb up the
lower rigging, and had learned several things about the ship. I was
very happy, I was never tired, and was only too ready to work off my
superabundant vitality. I also learned how to wash clothes. My first
attempt was a failure, a heavy shower of rain was falling, and one of
the sailors coming along the deck with an armful of dirty clothes,
called out to me: “Now then, Tommy, now’s the time to wash
clothes,” and following his example, I brought my dirty gear on to the
deck in the drenching rain, and soaping them well, tried to dolly the
dirt out of them by stamping and jumping on them with my feet as
they lay near the scuppers. Hanson roared with laughter at my
efforts, and then came along and gave me a lesson. I lost count of
the days, they passed so quickly, and were so full of interest. Every
day I loved the sea more and more, each day showed me some new
beauty in it, and on fine days, to see the sun rise and set on the
water was a marvellous picture to me, of which I never tired.
As was the custom on board ship, I learned to tell what day it was
by what we had for dinner, and what with the sea air, and the happy
healthy life I was leading, I was growing taller and stronger every
day. There was another boy besides myself on board, named Walter
Jones, a quiet, industrious boy. He was in the port watch, and we two
spent many an hour together in the dog watch, which is the sailors’
time for recreation, learning to splice ropes, make fancy knots, and
other things that were necessary to the making of a good seaman.
The chief officer, in his gruff fashion, told us one day that a sailing
vessel was like a young lady in her best clothes—to look complete
she had to have them all on, and in good order; she must be washed