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A SKETCH
NEW SOUTH WALES.
BY
J. O. BALFOUR, Esq.
I
FOR SIX XEARS A SETTLER IN THE BATHURST DISTRICT.
LONDON:
SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.
1845.
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TKK :,i,W ^h'lK
PU;, -.;, L-i , '.
41487;JB
TILDEN FOUNl/.-Vit) xS
B 1947 Ir
London :
Printed by Stbwart and UVMur,
Old Ballef.
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Situation — Seasons— Brickfielders — Diseases — Aborigines — Gins —
Corradgee — Corroborry — Native Fight— Bogan Tribe — Sheep
and Cattle Stealing 1
CHAPTER II.
^^^ Animals — Platypos— Feathered Tribe— Reptiles — Insects— Destrnc-
^ tive Fly — Fish — Trees — Banian Tree — Minerals — Mountains —
*S. RiTors— Soil— Australian Plains 22
^ CHAPTER III.
* History — Sydney — Gardens — Melbourne— Paramatta— Inland Towns
^! — Counties — Population — Convicts — Emancipists — Mechanics—
fs.^^ Labourers— Report of the Emigration Committee 49
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IV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
Immigrants — Professions ~- Merchants — Shopkeepers — Settlers —
Sheep-Farming, its Profits — High Price of Laboar — Insolvents —
Horned Cattle — Horse Stock — Persons adapted for Settling 79
CHAPTER V.
GoTomment Laws and Courts — Police — Provisions for Clergj —
Education — Revenae and Expenditure — District Councils. . 107
APPENDIX.
Statistical Returns, taken from the Printed Papers of the Legislative
Council .•••. 121
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PREFACE.
The following pages were written for the purpose of
occasionally relieving the tedium of a long sea voyage;
but the great interest which at present exists in all
matters relative to our Colonial possessions in the
South Pacific, has induced me to publish a narrative
which, I am aware, has little other recommendation
than the accuracy of the facts stated.
In executing a task which is altogether foreign to
my previous habits, I have studiously avoided the
introduction of all personalities ; I have ventured on
no matter that can be individually offensive, and, at
the same time, I have advanced no statement on
which there exists a shadow of a doubt.
J. O. Balfour.
London, Auffust, 1846.
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ERRATA.
Page 34, line 5 from bottomy/br by read in.
41, — 7 from bottom, ybr mines read hills.
43, last line, /or droughts read drought
82, line 11 from bottom, /or cheap read sheep.
107, — 8 from bottom, /or Macquaire read Macqaarie.
HO, — 12, /or by read from.
Ill, — 4 from bottom, /or three read the.
114, last line, insert former b^ore colonial.
120, line 4, /or colony read colonists.
120, — 5, /or their read the.
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A SKETCH OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
CHAPTER L
Situations — Seasons — Brickfielders — Diseases — Aborigines — Gins-^
Corradgee — Corroborry — Native Fight — Bogan Tribe — Sheep
and Cattle Stealing.
Few of our colonial possessions have of late years
held out brighter prospects to persons intending to
emigrate than New South Wales, and notwithstanding
its immense distance of nearly 16,000 miles, enter-
prising capitalists and labourers have preferred it to
the nearer colonies of Canada and the Cape of Good
Hope. The island of New Holland, in which New
South Wales is situated, extends nearly 1800 miles
from north to south, and upwards of 2000 miles
from east to west. Its northernmost point is not
much more than 500 miles from the equator; while
the southernmost, which is in thirty-eight degrees
south latitude, enjoys the climate of the temperate
zone. The longitudinal points of the island are from
112 to 153 degrees of east longitude. It has been
remarked by travellers that, although the southern
point of New Holland corresponds in latitude with
that of Lisbon in the northern hemisphere, the climate
more generally resembles that of Bordeaux, and other
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2 DISCOVERY OF NEW HOLLAND.
places which are in forty-four degrees north latitude.
This peculiarity can be attributed only to the vast
surface of the Pacific Ocean, as compared with that of
the land in the southern hemisphere. When it is
day in England it is night in New South Wales ; the
seasons also are the converse of those in the northern
hemisphere.
The Spaniards at the commencement of the
seventeenth century were the discoverers of New
Holland; and from them it received the name of
Australia. It subsequently, however, obtained its
present name of New Holland from the Dutch navi-
gator, who visited it a few years afterwards. The
celebrated Cook, who was the first explorer of the
eastern coast of the island, in the year 1776, gave
such a flattering account of the new land, that the
British Government were induced to rank it among
the English colonies.
The southern part of the island of New Holland has
been divided into three principal parts, discovered at
different periods, — viz.. South Australia in the centre ;
Swan River Settlement on the western coast; and New
South Wales, or Eastern Australia, on the east coast
The colony of South Australia has its principal town,
Adelaide, in thirty- five degrees south latitude, and
140 degrees west longitude. This colony has been
fast acquiring a name among the Australian colonies,
and will, in all probability, become a very important
field for emigration. The Swan River SetUement
has not risen into much importance. Like South
Australia, it has a government of its own. The
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THE SEASONS. 3
prominent features of these colonies are similar to
those of New South Wales. The last-named colony,
which is the oldest and most considerable of the
Australian settlements, lies on the east coast of New
Holland, extending from Moreton Bay on the north,
to Port Phillip on the south, — a distance of upwards
of 1000 miles. The coast line abounds with capa-
cious and beautiful harbours, communicating with
lands, more or less adapted for pasture and agricul-
tural purposes.
The winter months in New South Wales are May,
June, and July ; and its hottest months, November,
December, and January. The climate is variable, —
and notwithstanding the many tales that have been
told of its beautiful sky,- the frequent and refreshing
showers, and the genial warmth of the temperature,
the truth is, that, although the days are often delight-
ful, and light and penetrating showers, promoting
rapid vegetation, often fall, tropical rains sweep-
ing all before them are not uncommon, and hot winds
rushing through a highly heated atmosphere, throw
a blight upon what was yesterday green and flourish-
ing. In January, 1840, the thermometer in a well
shaded room facing the south stood as high as 120
degrees ; while, for some days previous, the average
range had been about 105 degrees. As a proof that
tropical rains are known in Australia, there fell in
October, 1844, nineteen inches of rain within forty-
eight hours ; and during the torrent, two and a half
inches fell within two hours. It is but justice, how-
ever^ to state that the Australian rains are not often
B 2
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4 BRICKFIELDEH8.
of this description; and colonists of many years
standing declared that there were not more than one
or two instances of similar torrents in their time, and
this statement would appear to be borne out by the
fact, that rivers which had not been running streams
for years, had their banks overflown to such a height
that huts two miles distant were washed away.
The winter is more a season of rain than of frost.
Snow even seldom falls in Sydney and the warmer
parts of the colony, and when it does, the rays of
the rising sun soon disperse all traces of it. In
Bathurst, however, which is more than 3000 feet
above the level of the sea, and in other similarly
situated parts, snow-storms often occur, and ice, an
inch in thickness, may sometimes be found during
the winter months. The greatest peculiarity in the
climate is what is called by colonists a brickfielder.
This wind has all the characteristics of a sirocco in
miniature : its effects are not, it is true, so fearful as
those of the much dreaded wind of the desert, which
we are told buried the monuments, temples, and
great cities of Egypt in remote times, and has suffo-
cated caravans of men and camels in times less
distant; nevertheless, the Australian sirocco is bad
enough ; it generally lasts for a day, — coming in
intermitting gusts. The careful shopkeeper on such
occasions, puts up his window-shutters, and locks his
door; similar precautions are adopted in dwelling-
houses, and business loses for the time its wonted
bustle. During the gusts, which seldom last more
than ten or fifteen minutes, the sun is obscured, and
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DISEASES. 5
the atmosphere is an actual cloud of dust He
whose business requires him to go out during thi^
visitation, is pretty sure to come in for either the
beginning or the fag end of a gust; when in the
course of a few minutes he finds, notwithstanding his
precautions, that the fine particles of sand have filled
his eyes, and penetrated even through his clothes.
Returning home, he discovers that the house is
fiill of sand ; that the brickfielder has even insinuated
itself between the leaves of his books ; that at dinner
he will probably find that his favourite dish has been
spoiled by the brickfielder. Nor is this all ; for oil
retiring to rest he will find that the brickfielder
has intruded even within the precincts of his mus*
quitto curtains.
The inhabitants of New South Wales are not sub-
ject to many diseases ; those of most frequent occur-
rence in the colony are ophthalmia, dysentery, and
rheumatism. The first I do not suppose is the
ophthalmia of Egypt; it is called by the colonists
^* blight," and is most prevalent during the hot winds.
I have remarked that the martyrs to this disease
were, for the most part, persons who apparently
were of uncleanly habits, although I doubt not that
it frequently attacks others. Whether the " blight"
is an epidemic complaint or not, I am unable to
determine. The common opinion is that it is
caused by the venomous sting of a small sand-fly
blown by the hot wind into the eye. Dysentery, I
think, prevails chiefly among the lowest class, although
it often, in a modified shape, attacks, like the mus^
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6 DISEASES.
quitto, the newly-arrived emigrant. Mercury, in large
quantities, is resorted to as the great antidote, and, I
believe, with much success. Intemperance is, I
suspect, the chief cause of this disease, although
drinking cold water in warm weather, exposure to the
sun, and partaking too freely of the Australian fruits,
are also exciting causes. Rheumatism, in the interior,
affects more or less almost all who, from their bush
pursuits, are often obliged to sleep in the open air ;
and there are few men who lead this Ufe that are not
dressed from top to toe in flannel, even in the hottest
day of summer. I have, however, seen but few
rheumatic cripples among the many whom I found
suffering from the complaint.
There have been many cases of influenza in the
country ; but I never heard of their proving fatal to
any but the more weakly. Although many persons
afllicted with consumption have been cured in New
South Wales, the colonial youths have nearly all a
most consumptive appearance, their persons being
generally very thin, while their features, often
handsome, have for the most part an unhealthy
look.
There are few places where an excess in the use
of spirits does not conduce to disease and death, but
in warm climates it is especially calculated to under-
mine the constitution, and injure the moral ener-
gies ; and I regret to say, there are many diseases
in New South Wales which owe their origin to in-
temperance alone, and these of course cannot be
classed among the diseases of the climate. ^ I have
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ABORIGINES. 7
seen one case of coup de soleiL The man afflicted
was a servant of my own, and was of very temperate
habits: he was a large and strong man, but very
corpulent. The day of his seizure was one of the
hottest I ever experienced.
It was not until a few weeks after I arrived in the
colony, that I saw any of the aborigines. They fre^
quent the locations of white men during the winter
months only, being engaged, in the hot season, in
migratory expeditions for the purposes of hunting,
fishing, and redressing grievances received firom
neighbouring tribes. A journey which I took, how^
ever, soon after my arrival, from Sydney, to the lower
part of the Macquarie River (a distance of about
350 miles), brought me among the sable tribe of the
Macquarie ; and I shall never forget the disgust
with which I first saw these savages, in all the
majesty of nature, without the slightest covering.
Some were standing, others lying at full length,
while others again were squatted on their haunches
in a peculiar and most luigracefiil fashion. They
numbered about fifty, and had just returned firom a
war with the Bogan tribe ; their bodies were covered
with many curious and diversified sorts of lacera-
tions; their abdomens, shoulders, and legs were
painted crimson. Their unearthly shouting — their
features, which were most repulsive — the low, or I
might almost say the no forehead of most of them —
the shaggy eyebrows protruding over and almost
hiding the small keen eyes — the flabby nose, un-
naturally distended by a long white bone inserted
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8 ABORIGINES^
through the nostrils — the thick lips and the snow-
like teeth, common to cannibals — all inspired
me with a dislike for them, that time and al-
most daily intercourse with them have not re-
moved. The men are generally hideous in their
aspect, yet I have seen some that might be almost
called good-looking; these have a Jewish cast of
countenance, with dark and piercing eyes* Their
heads, however, all much larger behind than in front,
are certainly not such as a phrenologist would ad-
mire. The men are seldom above the middle size,
their skins are of a bronze colour, the hair is not
curled like the African, but straight, long, and
abundant ; their breasts and backs are thickly scari-
fied; they have not much stamina in them, and the
muscles, which stand out in bold relief on the legs
and arms of the New Zealander, are not visible on
the Australian savage. The male blacks wander about
in the hot season literally naked, with the exception
of a small band, made firom the fibres of a tree, worn
upon the head, as a snood is, or was, by women in
Scotland ; this band, painted white with pipe clay, is
the only mourning the men wear. Occasionally you
meet one who wears a small band round his loins
during the winter months. However, the more provi-
dent, but these are few, wear a small oppossum cloak.
The females are small and slender, and sometimes
become wives at the age of ten or eleven, and you
may see a gin (the aboriginal for a married woman),
almost without knowing, at the first glance, whether
she belongs to the mammalia order or not. The gins
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Gms. d
for the most part go about quite naked, with their
limbs well rouged with red ochre, which they think
much improves their charms. They have generally
a small cloak, made of oppossum skins sewn together;
it is, however, never used except in cold weather.*
A net made from the wild flax thrown over their
neck, and containing their children, their nets, their
calabash, and the stone tomahawks of their lords,
completes the wardrobe of these bronze-coloured
ladies.
The Australian blacks, both male and female, are
most expert swimmers, and children of three years
of age may be seen swimming and turning in the
water with a velocity that no European could equal ;
the men often remain, for a length of time under the
water, spearing, or catching with their hands, the
river fish. They have, however, a great aversion to
the water in cold weather; and it is only during the
hot season that they ever wash themselves; for the
rest of the year their outward man is never even
touched with water, and the safe plan, and that
which the bushman generally adopts, is to keep to
the weather side of them, even though on horscT
back. Should necessity compel them in winter to
cross a river through which a child might wade, a
piece of bark, stripped from an adjoining gum-tree,
turned up at both ends, serves them for a canoe— so
great is their aversion to cold water.
They have no regard for personal comforts, if they
are to be acquired by any trouble of their own.
b5
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10 EXPERT SWIMMERS.
Witness their total want of shelter during the winter
months^ when a hut of however rude a construction
would afford them a refuge from the inclemencies of
the season. Their only habitation, at least the
only one I have seen used, is formed by two sheets
of bark stripped from the nearest tree, at the first
appearance of a storm, and joined together at an angle
of forty-five degrees. This, which they call a gunnya^
is cut up for firewood when the storm has passed.
The males are expert in hunting the kangaroo ;
and as their dogs are almost useless, they are obliged
to use much stratagem in securing their prey; they
often, by means of tracking, and the aid of their
remarkably keen sight, manage to keep to the
leeward of the kangaroo for a distance of ten
miles. When they get within a few hundred yards
of one, they distort their bodies into all kinds of
shapes, sometimes representing burnt stumps of
trees, at other times lying like logs of black wood
on the ground, and if fortunate enough by such
means to get within range of their prey, their un-
erring spear accomplishes the rest. The emu is
hunted much in the same way. The seniors of the
tribes consider this bird as their peculiar property,
and say that the hairs must be white of him who
partakes of it. Fish in summer forms the chief article
of food for the tribes who live on the banks of the
larger rivers. Their mode of fishing is very whole-
sale, more particularly in still waters, where they
poison the fish by means of a sheet of bark stripped,
from the Myall tree (Acacia pendtda). In less than
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MODE OF FISHING. 11
half an hour after the Myall bark is thrown into the
pond^ the surface of the water is covered with fish
apparently dead» when the gins, who are always in
atteiidance for that purpose, leap into the water and
throw the fish in scores on the banks : after a very
faint imitation of cooking, the fish are devoured half
raw by these children of nature. Another, and by
far the more sportsmanlike and civilized method they
have of fishing, is as follows : one of their seniors
stands alone in his bark canoe, in the centre of a
stream, while a detachment of a dozen young men
go up the river about 500 yards above the canoe,
and the same number proceed down the river for a
few hundred yards, when, at the signal or cooye of
the old warrior, both parties throw themselves into
the water and return towards him, swimming, diving,
and spearing, and throwing the fish on the banks as
they go along ; the lion's share of the sport, how-
ever, belongs to the old warrior, who spears the
largest fish as they swim by him in their endeavour
to escape their ruthless pursuers. There are fre-
quently hundreds of fish caught in this manner, in
the course of a few hours ; many of them weigh as
much as twenty pounds.
Mussel fishing, or rather digging, is performed by
the gins, who by constant practice can use their toes
and feet for the purposes of digging, and with no
other assistance, they with great rapidity excavate,
to the depth of five or six inches, the hard clay
under which, in the hot seasons, are found abund-
ance of mussels and other shell-fish.
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12 BEE-HUNTINO,
But the most ingenious accomplishment of the
blacks^ and by far the most interesting to the colo-
nist, is their skill in bee-hunting. A party of ten
or twelve of them having caught an Australian bee,
an insect not much larger than our common fly,
attach to its body, with a gum that exudes from the
mimosa tree, a little light white down, taken from
the eagle or ibis. This is done as much for the
purpose of causing the bee to fly slowly, as to make
the object as large and white as possible ; they then
with a simultaneous shout start ofi^, running to and
fro, following the movements of the bee for more
than a mile, until the insect lights on its hive, in^
the hollow branch of a gum tree. In this man-
ner the blacks collect abundance of honey, and the
Australian honey greatly excels our finest heath
honey.
When the boys attain the age of fourteen years,
a ceremony, which has excited much reprehension
among some of the philanthropic colonists, takes
place. The nature of this ceremony no European
has yet been able to discover, and the gins even are
in total ignorance of its mysteries. Thrice I have
had the good fortune to see these truculent savages
start upon their mystic journey, and on each occa-
sion their numbers were about forty. The seniors
and warriors walked two abreast, each holding in
his right hand a green bough, and the boys that
were to be boys no longer, marched tremblingly in
the rear ; but where they went, or what was done, 1
know no more than others. They were absent twa
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MYSTERIOUS CEREMONT. 13
or three days, and upon their return I noticed that
the boys who went out to be made young men were
each minus a front tooth. They seemed much
elated, and studiously abstained from going near the
gins, whom they would even make a wide circuit to
avoid. I was told by some of the seniors, that those
who had been made young men, might now eat of
the kangaroo, and would have a chance in the first
fight of becoming renowned warriors ; but that until
their nulla nulla and spear could procure for them a
fair captive, they were under something equivalent
to an oath, never to approach the gins of either
their own or any friendly tribe.
Among these people, polygamy has no limits ; the
young warrior has generally two gins, one of whom
is old enough to be his mother, and has the im*
mediate charge of the menage^ the other is young,
and the mother of his children. The old and
superannuated warrior, grown, I suppose, grey in the
service of Mars, rejoices in not less than seven or
eight black Venuses, of all ages and sizes. On the
abduction of a female, the gay Lothario, whoever he
may be, has to tilt it with all her kith and kin, and,
strange as it may appear, the victor, if even he is
her brother, carries off the captive of his spear to
make nets, dig mussels for him, and become the
mother of his children. To a white, the black hus-
band is very accommodating, offering to every pass-*
ing white man the choice of his harem. I never
could discover that these swarthy lords had the
slightest affection for their wives or children, theis
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]4 THEm GREED.
value for their gins appearing to be regulated
by the quantity of grubs^ mussels, and roots that
they could collect I do not think that they have
any creed, although they seem to have a dread of
the ^^Mannai," or as, since their communication with
the whites, they term it the Devil, or evil spirit,
which they think is the cause of all their misfor-
tunes ; thus the small pox, which carried away great
numbers of them, they say is the ^^Mannai." Light-
ning and thunder, of which they have a great dread,
they also call ^ Mannai," and death they call *^ Man-
nai." Their wandering habits, combined with their
inability to comprehend anything beyond their im-
mediate necessities, has hitherto rendered all at-
tempts to civilize them absolutely abortive. I know
of one mission which cost the colonial government
nearly 700Z. per annum for upwards of five years,
that did not make one convert among these savages.
For appearance sake, however, it had clothed and fed
some half dozen children, who, although occasionally
dwelling with white men, nevertheless spent most of
their time in their fitvourite haunts in the wilds of
the interior.
The Coradgees, who are their wise men, have,
they suppose, the power of healing and foretelling.
Each tribe possesses one of these learned pundits,
and if their wisdom were in proportion to their age,
they would indeed be Solons. When sitting at my
hut door, ruminating on days gone by, looking with
horror on the mighty waste of barrenness lying
before me, and praying, for the sake of my live
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THE CORADGEES. 15
Stock, for rain to change the ^id plain into a green
and fertile meadow, often has the coradgee joined
me^ and addressing me in his gibberish, would point
to the cloudless sky and to the quarter that the slight
breeze came from ; then jingling stones in his hand, and
taking from his mouth a piece of quartz which he pre-
tended to have vomited, he would assure me that when
"Arroka," the sun, went down, there would be rain.
As we are prone to believe that which we wish, I was
too often his dupe, and rewarded him with what he
most wished for, a piece of tobacco. The evening, how-
ever, seldom brought proof that the Australian pro-
phet was an inspired one. I never heard of any
wonderful cures effected through the agency of these
coradgees, and the broken legs and arms which I
have seen them set, described, when sound, anything
but a straight line.
The corroborry, like many of the habits of the Aus-
tralian savage, is unknown, I believe, in other parts of
the world, and is always performed in the evening,
when the blacks muster for the occasion, in great
numbers, and paint their bodies with pipe-clay and
red ochre. They occupy themselves ifrom dusk until
it is dark in piling up stumps of trees, boughs, and
bark, which, when the night is pretty well advanced,
they set fire to, and when the blaze is at its highest
the corroboriy dance commences to the shouting of old
women and the beating of sticks. From the side
which is most dark and obscure, the painted figures of
the men come forward one by one and form into
lines. The immense blaze that proceeds from the
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16 THE CORROBORRY.
fire is SO dazzling that all beyond its immediate neigh-
bourhood is dark as Erebus ; the savages who rush
swiftly before the bonfire appear to rise firom the
earth. Their movements, which are at first slow,
soon become quick and fantastical, their eyes glare
fearfully, and are all constantly directed towards one
unseen object, and as the excitement increases they
jump up perpendicularly, and with a simultaneous
movement, always taking care to keep time to the
shouting and beating of sticks. Their gestures and
attitudes are of the wildest kind, and the corroborrj^
is not unlike what one might imagine of a ballet
executed by the denizens of the zoological gardens.
The women, who are not allowed to partake in the
corroborry dance, sit silent or applauding spectators,
and the young men skip about with extra ferocity
when they hear the "bougerais" (bravo) of the
women.
The fights of the blacks generally occur where
no European can see them; I was, however, once
witness to a single combat that took place on the
Bogan between two of them, and which, through the
treacherous conduct of the Bogan tribe, I am afi-aid
proved fatal to one of them. The one who I believe
was murdered had come alone from the Lachlan
river to visit the Bogan tribe, and had lived on
firiendly terms with them for some days. This
amicable feeUng, however, did not exist long, it
being soon interrupted by a Bogan black well known
among the whites by the name of "Fighting Jemmy,"
who in the heat of an argument made a remark on the
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NATIVE FIGHT. 17
Lachlan tribe of so offensive a nature that the visitor
retired from the group. However, in less than ten
minutes afterwards a whamera whizzed past where I
was 'standing, and with unerring aim struck Fighting
Jemmy on the arm. I shall never forget the cooing,
shouting, roaring, cracking of nuUa-nuUas, jump-
ing, skipping, and dancing about which ensued;
but above all was to be heard distinctly the wild
shout of the Lachlan black, who, with his right hand
full of spears, his whaddie and heleman in his left,
was skipping in the air, shouting his war cry as if in
defiance of the whole assembled Bogan tribe. His
appearance was most wild, and he had evidently
occupied the time of his withdrawal in preparing for
fight, as his stomach, legs, and arms were painted
with red ochre, and his body was slimy and slippery
from the grease with which it was covered. The
general noise and shouting soon subsided, and the
Lachlan black and Fighting Jemmy set to work right
manfully; but, after a quarter of an hour's hard
fighting, it was apparent that Fighting Jemmy had
neither the dexterity nor enduring courage of the
other, under the influence of whose nulla*nulla he
had five or six times kissed the ground. The victory
was decidedly in the hands of the Lachlan black,
when a spear thrown from a distance pierced the calf
of his leg ; as quick as thought the Lachlan black
stooped, drew the spear out of his leg, and drove it
into the forehead of his adversary. Now, never
doubting, I suppose, that he had conquered, he
threw down his weapons and shouted for joy. His
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t8 NATIVE FIGHT.
happiness, however, was short lived, for he was
seized by the Bogan blacks^ and carried away with
much haste ; and, although I tried both threats and
rewards with the Bogan tribe, I never could find out
the fate of the Lachlan hero, but was told that they
did not like my interference, and that they would
become " coolie ;" in other words, that there would
be enmity between them and me.
The Bogan tribe I disliked more than any of the
other tribes I had met in the colony. They are
avowed cannibals, and had shown themselves, in more
than one instance, very fond of white men's flesh. I
had a personal encounter with this tribe, a short time
after I arrived in the colony, which has served per*-
haps to keep alive my animosity to them ; the cir-
cumstances were these : — Having purchased a herd
of cattle in the Bogan river, I had occasion to visit
them, to receive delivery of the herd, and as there was
no station within seventy miles, and no beaten track
to it, I took a black as my guide from the Mac-
quarie river. The day after my arrival at the
station, all the men being otherwise occupied, I de-
spatched my guide with the cattle for the purpose of
giving them food and water, but with strict injunctions
not to go more than a mile from the hut, and about
noon I saddled my horse and went out to inspect my
new purchase. I found, however, that my sable friend
had exceeded his orders, for when I overtook the
cattle they were distant from the hut more than three
miles, and as I believed them close at hand I had not
taken my pistols with me ; while, to add to my dis-
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BQGAN TRIBE. 19
comfort, I got occasional glimpses of black eyes and
anything but amicable countenances, peering from
behind every bush. Knowing that there was not a
moment to be lost, I immediately turned the leading
cattle homewards and desired my black friend to
assist me in driving them in that direction. The
words had scarcely passed my lips when I felt some-
thing heavy strike the back of my head, and I fell
stunned from my horse ; the last thing that I remem-^
ber was a silvery headed old rascal standing with his
foot on my chest, and his spear raised as if in the act
of putting an end to me. Hours passed, and it was
nearly dark when I recovered my senses, and after
many of the faces that were familiar to me in child-
hood had, as if in a vision risen before me, the reality
of my position gradually became apparent, and I
found tnyself lodged in my hut with white faces
around me. I learned that my horse returning to
the hut without his rider had excited suspicion, and
the stockmen, who had by that time returned jfrom
their work, immediately started in search for me, well
provided with fire-arms, and that when they found
me, the cattle were gone, and I was extended sense-
less on the ground, while the Macquarie black, who
assured the men that his intercession had saved my
life, was sitting beside me. His story was, that while
a party of the blacks drove away the cattle, the elders
of the tribe remained for the purpose of butchering
me, but that he interfered, representing me as a new
and good master, who had just come over the great
waters, one very fond of the blacks, and always giving
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50 BOGAN TRIBE.
them tea, sugar, and tobacco. He has so frequently
since told me the same story, that I cannot doubt that
but for him some of the Bogan tribe would have slaked
their thirst with my blood, and have eaten human
flesh that day in preference to beef; indeed, I was
for some time kept alive to the physical reality of the
adventure, by a contusion in the back of my head,
which remained painful for weeks. The stunning
effects of the blow passed over, and before long, at-
tended by the stockmen, and well armed, I went in
search of the cattle ; when, after a day's hard riding,
we came upon them, but upon counting the herd
I found there were fifty short, these I have no doubt
were taken into the fastnesses by the blacks, as they
have never since been seen. The whole affair was
reported by me immediately to the nearest civil
authority, but after wasting two months in the vain
hope that some decided steps would be taken to pre-
serve the lives of my men and my property, I re-
turned to the Bogan, and finding matters wearing
even a worse aspect than formerly, I collected my
cattle and drove them to a station on the Lachlan
river. I have had reason since to rejoice in the step
I then took, as a few months afterwards it appeared
that the gentleman to whom I handed over my Bogan
station, and who entertained a better opinion of the
blacks, was obliged to vacate it with a loss of 500 head
of cattle.
Cattle and sheep stealing is now so common among
the aborigines (and in most cases goes unpunished),
that thousands of sheep and hundreds of cattle have
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CATTLE AND SHEEP STEALING. 21
been taken by them in daylight from their white
protectors, and sometimes the shepherds killed. In a
district where the population did not exceed 1000,
there were, in less than twelve months, twenty white
men butchered by the very savages whom some mis-
called philanthropists seem to regard at least as much
as their countrymen. I have seen enough of the
desert, of the savage spirit of freedom, and of these
cannibals whom men talk of without having seen,
to make me think more leniently of crimes that are
perpetrated in the lowest grades of civilization, I will
not even exclude the iron gangs. No settler can
look upon the atrocious crimes which, devised by the
cunning of the elders of the Australian tribes, are
executed by the strength and activity of the young
men, without shuddering, and asking where is the
protection for which he is taxed, and all the colonists
agree that one of the greatest grievances the New
South Wales settler suflfers, is the want of proper
protection for the herds, flocks^ and men, in the
distant localities.
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22 ANIMALS.
CHAPTER II.
Animals — Platjpus — Feathered tribe — Reptiles— Insects— Destruc-
tive flj — Fish — Trees — Minerals — Mountains — Rivers — Soil
—'Australian Plains.
New South Wales is much favoured in being almost
entirely exempt from ferocious animals. The native
dog, which is the only beast of prey, bears much re-
semblance in size, colour, and shape of the he^, to
the English fox, but is stronger and more tenacious
of life. Hunting this animal affords much amuse-
ment to the settlers, and as the native dog has a
trail, those who can aflford it use the fox-hound ; but
a cross between the greyhound and mastiff, called by
the colonist the kangaroo dog, is most generally
used ; the runs vary from ten to thirty minutes, and
although this sport is not to be compared with fox-
hunting, yet, with a good nag under me, with a
couple of good dogs, and the Australian fox in view
I have enjoyed myself much. The native dog
sometimes commits depredations among the flocks of
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KANGAROOS. 23
the settlers, but as a loud howl always gives notice
of its approach, and as it is easily driven away,
the settlers very properly blame the men in chaise
and make them answerable for any losses that may be
thus sustained.
Kangaroos are of six diflferent species, viz. the
forester, the flyer, the wallaby, the wallaroo, the kan-
garoo rat, and the kangaroo mouse. They are all
harmless and inoffensive; their characters and ap-
pearance, excepting in size and colour, are the same
throughout The head is small, the eyes large and
black, the ears long and pointed, the fore legs and
feet are very small, the fore feet are divided into
five toes furnished with claws, and hang down in
front apparently as useless appendages, except when
employed in pulling and holding the grass and roots
on which the kangaroo feeds. The hind quarters
are remarkable for their size and muscular power ;
the hind legs are long and powerful, and are alone
used by the kangaroo when taking its immense
bounds. The hind feet are large and divided into
three toes ; the two extreme toes are small, but the
central one, which is nearly the size of the whole
foot, is armed with a large claw, capable, in the
larger species, of tearing its pursuer to pieces,
whether man or dog. Th6 sole of the hind foot,
which is an elastic substance, yields to pressure
like Indian rubber, and assists the kangaroo in taking
its gigantic leaps. The tail, which is long and mus-
cular, is not used, as some have supposed, by the
kangaroo when jumping; it sometimes serves as a
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24 KANGAROOS,
prop when the animal is standing erects although
more frequently it is whisking to and fro with a
power and rapidity that renders coming to close
quarters with its proprietor dangerous. The female
kangaroos produce one at a time^ and when hunted
they pick up their young one, and place it in their
ventral pouch, but if close pressed they adopt the
first law of nature, throw out their young one, and
look out for themselves.
The forester, sometimes weighing more than
250 lbs., and the flyer, weighing nearly 100 lbs., are
the kangaroos which afford most sport to the bush
hunter. Young settlers are generally provided with
four or five well-trained kangaroo dogs, remarkable
alike for their strength and fleetness, for the purpose
of wiling away an hour or two during an idle day,
or giving amusement to a friendly visitor. Should
the country through which the chase is, be thickly
wooded, or very rocky, the kangaroo invariably
escapes; but if an open plain, or thinly-wooded
country, the run, which often lasts for an hour with-
out a check, generally ends with a death. The kan-
garoo sometimes takes to the high lands, where it
falls an easy victim, not being able to make way over
hilly ground; but if not exhausted by running it
stands at bay and faces its pursuers ; and if the fore-
most dog is young, and not well trained, he is sure of
either having his ribs broken by the stroke of the
kangaroo's tail, or more unfortunately, if hugged by
the fore legs of the kangaroo, the finishing stroke
will be given to the poor dog by the powerful toe
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KANQAROOS. 25
and claw of the hind foot When the forester and
flyer are hard pressed they make for the nearest
water, well knowing that there they are most formi-
dable ; and if fortunate enough to reach it, they can
keep the dogs at bay by striking, seizing, and throw*
ing them under water.
The wallaroo kangaroo is of a darkish red colour,
and weighs about 60 lbs. ; it is generally found in
swampy places, and is often hunted by the bush-
men in dry weather. The wallaby, or rock kanga*
roo, is of a dark-grey colour, with a red muzzle ; it
weighs about 20 lbs., and frequents rocky places.
It affords famous sport for those who are so fond
of shooting as to make'^ light of climbing hills and
high rocks under a vertical sun. The wallabys are
to be seen only on the hottest days, basking them-
selves in the sun, on the tops of the highest rocks,
and their senses of hearing and smelling are so acute,
that the sportsman must step lightly, and be can*
tious in keeping them to windward of him, until he
gets within rifle range. There is, however, so much
trouble and disappointment attending this method
of stealing on the wallaby, that those -who indulge
most in this sport find it pleasanter to lie quietly
in a pass in the rocks, while half-a-dozen blacks,
who are easily obtained for this purpose, drive the
kangaroos within range of their guns.
The kangaroo rat is about the size of a rabbit, and
the kangaroo mouse is not much larger than our
English one.
The flesh of all the species of kangaroo is much
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26 OPOSSUM— WILD CAT — ^BANDICOOT.
prized by the aborigines, and even the hind quar-
ters, which are tough and sinewy, they devour with
great gout. The tail, which is the only part of the
animal that is fat, makes excellent soup, and is not
unlike ox-tail. The skins, which are sometimes
used by the aborigines for cloaks, make famous
leather, and boots made from it, besides being soft
and pleasant to the feel, are more adapted for the
Australian climate than those made of any other
leather.
There are two or three species of opossums. These
animals are about the size of an English cat, and their
colour is light grey. They inhabit the hollows of
trees and branches, and feed upon the leaves of the
gum tree. Their flesh, which is white, and has an
aromatic, but not unpleasant flavour, is much prized,
and forms perhaps the chief article of food among the
natives.
The wild cat is the size of a rabbit, and is covered
with a beautiful and speckled fur. They are to be
found only in some parts of the colony, and in these
places the poultry yards sufier much from their
visits.
The bandicoot is the size of a large rat, of a dark
brown colour; it feeds upon roots, and its flesh is
good eating. This animal burrows in the ground,
and it is from this habit, I suppose, that when hungry,
cold, or unhappy, the Australian black says that he is
as miserable as the bandicoot. In some parts of the
colony there is a species of sloth, but I have never
seen any of them.
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THE PLATYPUS. 27
The same peculiarities in their generative organs
pervade all these animals^ and all the females have
the ventral sac or pouch at the lower extremity of
the stomach.
The most singular quadruped in New Holland (if
quadruped it be) is the ornithoryncus paradoxus^ or
platypus. It is found in all parts of the colony,
and frequents the deepest holes in the rivers^
where, when swimming about, it is frequently
shot by the sportsman. The most remarkable ex-
ternal feature of this animal is the mouth, which
is as like a duck's bill as one thing can be to
another. The fore feet are webbed, and the
body, which is a foot in length, is covered with
a very thick and beautiful fur of a dark colour.
The male platypus has attached to its hind feet a
small bony spur, and in this spur there is a canal
scarcely perceptible to the naked eye, filled with
poison, and firom this venom, it is said, some of the
aborigines have died. The female platypus has not
this claw, and she is declared, by many of the colo-
nists, who speak from personal observation, to be
oviparous.
The feathered tribe in New South Wales are
as numerous and remarkable for their beautiful
plumage as some of them are for their novelty of
character.
The largest and most singular Australian bird is
the emu ; it bears a great resemblance to the ostrich,
and is covered with feathers of a dark hue, which are
diort and wiry-looking, having at the first glance the
c2
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28 BIBDS.
appearance of dark goats* hair. This bird has small
flappers, or tafts, which even when extended are so
excessively small, that they have no apparent affinity
to, and seem to serve none of the purposes of
wings. The emu, when standing or walking erect,
is a majestic and graceful-looking bird, measuring
nearly six feet in height. It has a great quantity of
fat immediately under the skin, which, when ren-
dered into a fine oil, is a famous specific for rheu-
matism, and beats all the Rowland's macassar in
the world for invigorating, and perhaps restoring
hair. The digestion of this bird resembles that of
the ostrich, and I have seen persons amusing them-
selves with feeding a domesticated emu with alter-
nate pieces of bread, cigars, nails, and hoop-iron,
which seemed all much and equally relished. Its
flesh IS coarse, but is, nevertheless, greatly prized by
the aborigines. Its eggs, ^although a little smaller
than those of the ostrich, are very large, and of a
beautiful green colour. The emu runs very swiftly,
and the horse and dog that can keep pace] with it
must be of the first calibre. It has an ugly knack of
kicking out with its hind leg when hotly pursued,
and that so forcibly as to kill the dog, and terminate
the day's chase.
Next in size among the birds of the colony is the
native companion. This bird stands about three or
four feet high, and its feathers are of a beautiful slate
colour. The native companion flies heavily, and is
easily shot.
The black swan is about the size of a white
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BIRDS* 29
one; it is found upon the inland lakes and rivers
The down of this bird is of a beautiful and iine
description ; the flesh is good, and, when well dressed,
not unlike venison.
The Egyptian ibb inhabits New South Wales,
but is seldom seen near the white man's dwelling.
There are many different species of ibis to be met
with during the hot season, and most of them are of
beautiful plumage.
The native turkey is a lai^e bird of the bustard
kind, weighing twenty pounds ; the legs are white^
and of a delicate' flavour, while the breasts and wings
are brown and tough.
Wild ducks are very abundant, and of many varie-
ties ; the plumage of some of them is very beautiful,
particularly the pink-eyed duck. The Australian
ducks are much esteemed by the sportsman as well
as by the epicure.
Quails, during the summer months, are seen in
thousands, and there are few settlers who do not set
the hottest day in December at defiance for the
purpose of bagging ten or twenty brace of these
birds.
Snipe and plover are numerous, and are more
easily shot, and quite as good eating as they are in
England.
There is an infinite variety of pigeons in New South
Wales, and almost every day a firesh specimen of this
bird is found. Their plumage is as beautiful as it is
varied, while they are of all sizes, from that of a
sparrow to that of a fat capon.
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30 BIRDS.
The hawks and eagles form a large and beautiful
class among the feathered tribe of Australia, and the
admiration of every one must be attracted alike
to the small and beautiful white hawk hovering over
its prey, and to the gigantic eagles actually unable
to get out of the way, being gorged with the carrion
that has collected them together.
The species of birds most abundant in the colony,
and the plumage of >which is most varied, are the
parrots and cockatoos. They are found in all parts
of New Holland, and are quite as common as spar-
rows are in England. The eye becomes so accus-
tomed to this class of birds in a very short time, that
those of the most beautiful plumage fly past without
attracting the attention of the common observer.
These birds can be taught to speak and whistle,
although their natural screech is most discordant.
The different species of small birds are excessively
numerous, and nature, as if to compensate them for
their want of ear (for none of them deserve the
character of singing birds), seems to have deprived
the rainbow of its colours, and to have bestowed
them, even more harmoniously mingled, on the
smaller birds of Australia.
The reptile tribe in Australia is very numerous,
and they are for the most part oviparous. The dif-
ference between the venomous and innoxious serpent
is only to be known by a minute inspection of their
mouth and teeth ; and although the general opinion
is, that the brown snake, which is nine feet.
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REPTILES. 31
the whip shake, which is four, and the death
adder, which is two feet in length, are equally
yenomous, I never met any, even amongst the oldest
colonists, who knew of a death being caused by the
bite of any Australian reptile, except that of the
death adder. The jaws and throat of the death
adder, which, when in a quiescent state, are not out
of proportion to its size, must be excessively lax and
dilatable, as I have found in the stomach of a
death adder a couple of bandicoots, as complete in
all their proportions as when alive, and consequently
they must have been swallowed whole* The carpet
snake is not a poisonous reptile, and disappears quickly
on the approach of man. The average size of this
snake is ten or twelve feet, but some have been
found as long as nineteen feet. They entwine them-
selves, like the boa constrictor, round the body of
their victim, and it would seem they find enough of
prey in the desert, as they never molest the sheep or
cattle of the settler. This snake derives its name
from the splendour of its skin, which is beautifully
marked — ^I had almost said — painted. The diamond
snake, which is very beautiful, is in length about ten
feet, and has the same characteristics as the carpet
snake.
The lizards vary in size, and are very numerous.
The largest and finest is the guana; its general
colour is green, but, like the chameleon, it firequently
changes to a white and brown hue ; the back is much
serrated, the skin is very thick, and the flesh, which
is white and delicate, is good eating. The guana is
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32 INSECTS.
about three feet in length, and, although a formidable
looking animal, it is quite harmless, and lives, as the
other lizards do, upon vegetables and insects. The
characteristics of the guana extend through the
whole of the lizard family of New Holland, the
smallest of which is not two inches in length.
Scorpions, centipedes, and tarantulas, {Ire all to be
found ; but their stings, which are painful, sometimes
causing much inflammation, are never fatal.
To the naturalist, the insects of New South Wales
afford a wide field of research, and, I believe, of
novelty ; while the common observer cannot feil to
regard them as beautiful. The coleoptera order
stands first in the richness and diversity of its tints,
varying in size from nearly two inches in length to
an atom almost invisible to the naked eye. They
are to be found in every part of the colony in great
abundance, and a collection of them is soon and
easily made. The gryllus order is very numerous,
and are very annoying in the summer months,
whether in the shape of the locust on the sea coast,
or of the grasshopper in the interior. I do not know
if the former is the Egyptian locust ; but if so, it is
more harmless than in days of old, and its bark is
worse than its bite, for although always cricketing
and buzzing, I never heard of its committing depre-
dations. In the summer of 1842, a swarm of large
whitish coloured grasshoppers, or locusts, never before
seen in the colony, paid a visit to some of the
Australian rivers, and after mowing down more
certainly and closely than the scythe ever did, the
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INSECTS. 33
grass on the adjoining plains, they vanished in the
tome mysterious manner in which they came; but
the havoc these insects committed is almost in-
credible. Miles and miles of beautiful pasture land
were desolated by them in the space of a week ; and
the only thing I can compare their infinite number
and density to, is a storm of snow falling in such
rapid flakes as to prevent both man and horse from
facing it. This, I believe, is the first instance on record
of these migratory grasshoppers, or whatever insect
they may be, having visited Australia, and I know
full well that the settlers pray that it may be the last.
Moths are very plentiful, and of all sizes. The
caterpillar, or grub of the large moth, found in the
interior^ forms no inconsiderable item in the repasts
of the aborigines. The sphinx moths are numerous,
and their many oblong-shaped nests, hanging from
the boughs of the swamp oak, present a prominent
object to the eye of the traveller. The flies are
very troublesome in summer, and being very prolific,
great care is requisite to protect meat from their
visits ; indeed fresh meat can scarcely be kept sound
for much more than twelve hours during the hotter
months, unless great attention be paid to its pre-
servation. The ravages committed by the mosquit-
tos during the hot season, on newly arrived emi-
grants, are truly dreadful. They pay their addresses
as assiduously to the sinewy and robust man as
to the fair and beailtiful girl ; nor while they
are intoxicating themselves, with the blood of the
plump and fat, do they reject the thinner blood
c 5
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34 FISH.
of the invalid. It would seem as if these venomons
flies had instituted a tariff of their own^ taxing all
importations from foreign parts, with an cd vahrem
bleeding, and allowing all who had subjected them-
selves to their laws for two or three months to rove
about with impunity.
Sharks are to be found in the bays and inlets of
New South Wales. They have been seen in water
not exceeding six feet in depth by persons while
bathing; but I have never heard of their having
indulged their love for human flesh at the expense
of any of the inhabitants of the colony. Whales
were, a few years ago, very abundant along the'
coast ; but are now comparatively very scarce. Some
account for their decrease by alleging, that the
whalers contented themselves with harpooning the
calves or young whales, on account of their being
obtained with less^trouble and expense than the old
ones; and as wh^es breed but once in two years,
and are much attached to their young, they natu-
rally went in search of some place where their off-
spring would be more free from danger. Others
again, with greater reason perhaps, attribute the
present scarcity to the well-known migratory habits
of the whale.
The Sydney market can boast neither of the variety
nor delicacy of its fish, although they are very abun-
dant, and by consequence cheap. The best kinds of
salt-water fish are the small, bream, and whiting;
these the most fastidious persons would eat with
pleasure ; but the larger snapper, rock cod, oysters.
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TBBES. 35
Australian lobsters, and others with which the mar-
ket abounds, would be objected to by an English
palate. The fresh-water fish are much prized by
the settlers in the interior, particularly a fish called
by the colonists codfish; it weighs from two to
twenty pounds, the flesh is excessively white, and
forms a light and agreeable food. It is firequently
dried ^n the same way as the Newfoundland cod, in
which state many prefer it. It bears but little re-
semblance to the sea cod, either in appearance or
taste. The eel fish, so called from its resemblance
to an eel, in the shape of its head and tail, weighs
firequently five or six pounds ; it is plump like the
cod fish, and its flesh is equally good. The river
mullet is also a good eating fiish. A small crayfish,
called by the aborigines ^ morramma^ is better eating
than any shell fish I ever tasted, and is very abun*
dant and easily caught.
The trees in New South Wales, which are remark-
able and many of them useful, have, for the most
part but little pretension to beauty ; and it is
strange, that while firuit trees in the highest perfec-
tion and of all varieties, firom the gooseberry bush to
the pom^anate and custard apple trees, luxuriate in
Australia; the soil has not one indigenous firuit
tree. The trees stand far apart, and most of them
are scantily clothed vdth leaves, which seem never
to fall o£P but to live, even when all sap has left the
parent stem : the leaves are very aromatic, and to
their antiseptic vurtues I have heard some attribute
the purity of the atmosphere and the infirequency of
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36 TREES.
disease ; and it is notorions throughout the colony
that stagnant waters emit no offensive effluvia, and
carrion even has not its most disgusting attribute.
The foliage is of a dark sombre green, the trunks
are naked, and their larger boughs are for the
most part scraggy and lifeless, and whether isolated or
in clusters, ^he general appearance of the Australian
trees is very far from being either picturesque or
beautiful.
The forests are frequently on fire, which in a
colder clime might be magnificent and agreeable,
but as the fires happen in New South Wales during
the warmest weather, the intense heat and lurid light
proceeding from them, combined with the rays of an
almost vertical sun, render these conflagrations far
firom pleasant to the traveller in the bush. Some of the
colonists contend that these fires originate in the fi:ic-
tion of the boughs of the trees during the high winds,
but whatever may be the cause, the effect is beneficial
to the settler, as they burn the long and hard grasses
which, after the first shower of rain, is replaced by
other more fresh and more nutritious.
The most common tree in the colony is the blue gum
tree, or eucalyptus. The larger ones luxuriate on the
banks of rivers, near inland lagoons ; and in these posi-
tions grow to such an enormous size, that through their
means the eye, fi:om an elevated site, can trace the
meanderings of a narrow stream, at a distance of
thirty miles. The timber of this tree is rather heavy,
ithas a close and compact grain, and is of a reddish
colour. But for this wood the settler would be badly
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TREES. 37
off indeed^ and it is invaluable to him^ if only for the
purpose of making the drays, which alone could carry
tons of produce and supplies over precipitous and
rocky roads.
The white gum tree is also very abundant ; the
timber is of a light colour^ and the grain is not so
compact as that of the blue gum. It is well adapted
for flooring, and is much used in the interior for
making slabs for huts and weatherboards. The iron
bark tree is a most useful one to the colonist ; the wood,
which is of a brown colour and good quality, splits well,
and is used throughout the colony for fencing, making
stock yards for cattle and pens for sheep.
The string bark tree is also useful, and its
bark, which is of a fibrous texture, often more than
an inch in thickness, parts easily from the wood, and
may be obtained ten or twelve feet in length, and
seven or eight in breadth. This bark is much used
in constructing shepherds' huts and temporary build-
ings, and it also answers the purpose of slates or
shingles for the bush hut and cottage.
The cedar tree is very abundant in some parts
of the colony, and being easily worked, it makes
cheap and beautiful furniture. It requires a prac-
tised eye, and minute inspection, to distinguish
between this wood when polished and mahogany,
and for my own part I never knew the difference
between a cedar and mahogany sideboard in an
upholsterer's shop, until I asked their respective
prices. The doors of all the houses in Sydney, and
in the better description of cottages in the interior
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38 TBEE8.
are made of cedar; but beaulifbl as this wood is, it is
not uncommon to see these doors painted blue, white,
or other colours, according to the taste, or rather
whim, of the respective inhabitants.
The river oak {casuarina) grows on the banks of
rivers, and having thick foliage, forms a pleasant and
useful shade for cattle during the heat of the day ; it is
very hard and will not split. The timber resembles
in its grain the English oak, and is the only wood in
the colony well adapted for making felloes of wheels,
yokes for oxen, and staves for casks.
Clusters of trees, bearing much resemblance to the
pine, are frequently found on ridges in the dry parts
of the country. The wood is of a yellow colour,
very compact, and when burnt leaves an ash white
as snow, and emits an agreeable perfume.
The myall tree (acacia pendula) is the most pic-
turesque tree of New South Wales. The leaves have
the appearance of |[being frosted, and the branches
droop like the weeping willow. These trees are seen
to best advantage when, as borders, they surround
grassj plains of two or three miles in extent, in which
position they are generally to be met with. The wood
of this tree has alternate shades of yellow and brown,
and its perfume is as delightful, and nearly as strong,
as sandal wood. The wood being very hard, is used
by the aborigines for making their boomerangs, and
other war instruments.
The mimosa is a very graceful tree ; the foliage
is of a light green colour, and its bough also droops
like the weeping willow: the yellow flowers with
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TBSBS. 39
which the mimosa is decked throw out a perfume
sweeter than the laburnum; and the gum^ which
exudes in great quantities from this tree, is said not
to be dissimilar to gum arabic.
The Australian myrtles, or tea trees, are to be found
in thick clusters, shading rocky springs. The diameter
of the trunk is seldom more than three inches, while
its height is often thirty feet. Its leaves I have seen
made into a beverage called tea. It, however, was
loathsome, and had not the slightest resemblance to
any known Chinese tea.
The species of palm most frequently met with
is called by the colonists the cabbage tree, and
from its leaves is made the hat almost universally
worn by the colonists in the interior.
The tulip wood, with its variegated flowers, and de-
lightful perfume, grows in abundance, — as does also the
sassafras, with its sweet smelling bark; many difierent
species of Banksia grow in great plenty in the neigh-
bourhood of Sydney, and from the density of their
foliage are very ornamental.
There are other trees to be found in the colony,
but they are peculiar to certain districts, such as the
fern tree which is peculiar to the districts south of
Sydney, rising in a naked and rough stem to
the height of twenty feet, and then at once it
spreads forth its immense leaves. To these may be
added varieties of beautiful and large palms that
grow in the southern parts of the colony; the
gigantic pine of the northern districts, and the
tree named by the colonists, from a peculiarity in
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40 TREES. — ^FLOWERS.
its grain, beef tree, Australian maple, and black
Trood ; these latter grow in the interior of th^ colony,
but are not found in great quantities.
The tree which has excited most interest in the
colony is the banian tree lately discovered to the
northward of Moreton Bay. It is described as an
immensely high tree, with a trunk of enormous size,
continually sending forth branches which droop to
the ground, and there take root, each branch forming
a trunk of considerable dimensions, giving to one
tree the appearance of a large cluster of trees, and
the circumference of this remarkable production is
some hundreds of feet. Milton has planted a tree
in the Garden of Eden, which in description much
resembles the banian tree.
" Tbe fig tree, not that for fruit renowned,
But such as at this day to Indians known.
In Malabar or Decan, spreads her arms
Branching so broad and long, that in the ground
The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother tree,*' &c,
A few miles from the sea coast many acres are to
be seen strewn with flowers, that bear in external
appearance a close resemblance to heaths, mingled
with curious and beautiful plants, wild vines, and
other parasitical creepers, towering above the un-
dergrowth of many-coloured flowers; the majestic
waratha, with its broad green leaf, and its rich purple
flower stands erect, and seems to assert the supe-
riority of Nature's garden in Australia to that of
man. In the interior, and places where the soil is
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MINERALS. — MOUNTAINS. 41
richer and not so sandy, flowers and creeping plants
have given place to' the more useful grasses and
Wild herbage, which grow in the bush in almost
endless variety.
Although little research has hitherto been devoted
to the mineral productions of New South Wales, the
country is fouiid to be well supplied with coal, iron,
lime, granite, and slate. In the district of the
Hunter an extensive coal field has been worked,
which supplies with fuel the various steam-engines
and shipping of Sydney; wood, mixed with coal, is
generally used in the dwelling-houses of Sydney.
Seams of coal have been found in all parts of the co-
lony, and in all the specimens of colonial coal hitherto
examined, foli^e and fibres of plants are visible.
Iron stone is very abundant, and is most frequently
found in the vicinity of mountain streams, to which
it generally gives a highly chalybeate taste. Lime-
stone is also plentiful in all parts of the colony, and
is as useful to the settler as to the builder. Free stone
and slate have only within late years, been much
used, and the new buildings of Sydney testify that the
former cannot be excelled in any part of the world.
Copper exists in great abundance, and there are few
districts that have not their copper mines.
A coast range of mountains which runs almost the
whole length of the colony takes its rise at about one
hundred miles south of Sydney, and although the
range extends many hundred of miles, I do not
think that the highest peak is 7,000 feet above the level
of the sea. These hills at the point where they rise
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42 RITEBS.
highest, are called the Blue Mountains, and the at-
mosphere there is so excessively cool, and the breeze
so refreshing, that the wayworn and sun-scorched
traveller rests himself for the day, as much to luxu-
riate in a delightful climate, as to enjoy the grandeur
of the surrounding scenery. Indeed, so wildly mag-
nificent is the ** Valley of the Gorse,** and the ** Pass
of Mount Victoria;" that even the hardened convict,
and the ignorant savage stop to gaze in wonder and
admiration. There are few hills besides the coast
range of importance, either with respect to their
height or extent ; but from the peculiarity of their
geological structure, and volcanic appearance, they
are highly interesting, particularly the burning hill
of *'Ingin," which may be seen at a distance of
seven miles, sending forth its smoke.
The rivers in New South Wales, which are neither
large nor very numerous, take their rise from the re-
spective sides of the coast range of mountains ; those
that run to the east are large in comparison to the
westerly ones. The largest river in the colony is the
Clarence, it empties itself into the sea on the east
coast below Moreton Bay, is three miles in breadth,
and is beautifully studded with small islands. It is
navigable for vessels of considerable tonnage, for
above forty miles. The Hunter runs easterly through
one of the finest and most productive districts in
the colony. It also. is navigable for many miles*
The Macleay, the Hastings, the Brisbane, and the
Hawkesbury, all run into the east coast between
twenty-eight and thirty-two degrees south latitude;
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BIVEBS. 43
they are laige and for considerable distances navi-
gable rivers. The westerly waters generally do not
in the summer months deserve the name of rivers ;
there are, however, exceptions, and the Darling, the
Murray, and the Murimbidgee rivers, to which all
the other westerly waters are tributaries, are during
the whole year running streams of considerable dimen-
sions. The course of the Australian rivers, can al-
ways be discerned by the diflFerent fish they pro-
duce. As for instance, the codfish is never found in
the easterly rivers, and the mullet does not inhabit
the westerly ones. There are not more than two or
three inland lakes of importance in the whole of New
Holland.
When the extent of country is considered, the evapo-
rating powers of an almost tropical sun, the absorbing
qualities of the beds of sand, on which most of the
Australian waters lie, the almost total absence of in-
land lakes, the scarcity of rivers, and the occasional
droughts, it will be seen, that only by artificial means,
can a sufficient supply of water be obtained. It has
ever seemed to me extraordinary, that settlers, of
nearly half a century's experience, should have im-
providently employed their convict servants, in en-
closing parks, and building large and beautiful man-
sions, when at a hundredth part of the trouble and
expense, they could have formed reservoirs and
dams that would in cases of drought have supplied
water for their flocks and herds, and in cases of
emei^ency, served for the purposes of irrigation.
The late droughts of 1838, which caused a great
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44 SOIL.
&talitj among the herds and flocks of Australia^ has
not been without its good effects^ for it has directed
the attention of some of the colonists to the pro-
priety of devising means for retaining the water that
at certain seasons falls in great abundance.
The soil in most localities of New South Wales is
much diversified; on the east coast of the colony
there is, however, one uniform belt of sand, bearing
at best a few stunted shrubs, extending in breadth
from one to thirty miles. This sandy and sterile
margin, which is caused by the absence of alluvial
deposits, gives to the temporary visitor to Australia
a bad and unfair impression of the general appear-
ance of the country ; and many who have paid
cursory visits to the colony, express their surprise
that so barren a soil should be able to produce in
such abundance every vegetable and grain required
by man. On the borders oT the bleakest coast line,
if not actually upon it, the olive tree has been found
to flourish as well as it does in those countries of
which it is a native- Receding further Jfrora the
coast line, the soil becomes well adapted for the
mulberry tree : this tree grows in most parts of the
colony, with scarcely any culture ; and there can be
no reason why silk should not be manufactured of
as good quality in New South Wales as in any other
part of the world. The orange tree grows almost
wild in the neighbourhood of Sydney ; indeed so
prolific are these trees in New South Wales, that one
would almost fancy they were indigenous to the
colony.
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SOIL. 45
Vines, which for the most part are trained, in
trellises, grow luxuriantly; and the general undu-
lating feature of the country affords many gentle
slopes and favourable aspects for the growth of the
vine ; and as it is now notorious that the vine has
grown in great luxuriance in all spots where it has been
planted, it is but fair to infer that the colony will in
time produce the wines of Europe, Maderia, and of the
Cape of Good Hope ; and perhaps many a delicious
and curious wine now unknown ; at the same time
it must be confessed that most of the wine hitherto
made in the colony is most execrable stuff. This,
however, is not to be wondered at, as but little or no
attention has been paid to the enlistment of the
services of those who understand the culture of the
vine. Indeed the Australian colonist is in general a
great stickler for intuitive knowledge; and were it
not for this failing, many useful and highly remunera-
tive productions would long ere this have increased
the list of colonial exports.
Many parts of the colony are highly favourable to
the growth of tobacco ; and within the last two years,
tobacco has been manufactured from the colonial
leaf equal to that of America ; and if the same at- *
tention which is now paid to the cultivation and
manufacture of this leaf continue, there can be
little doubt that in the course of a year or two
the use of foreign tobacco will not only be super-
seded throughout the Australian colonies, but that
also the exports of the country will, through the
means of colonial tobacco, be greatly increased.
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46 SOIL.
The quality of the soil in New South Wales seems
to be regulated by the nature of the high lands ; and
where limestone, granite, and trap rocks occur, the
surrounding land will, in general, be found to be
well adapted for the plough: wheat on such soils,
and under proper cultivation^ is said to average from
twenty to thirty bushels, although the average crop
is not more than thirteen bushels to the acre through-
out the colony. It is but justice, however, to say
that the supply of wheat, which of late years has,
for the most part, exceeded the demand, keeps the
price of grain so low, that the farmer* works his
ground generally in a cheap and slovenly manner,
taking from one soil frequently thirteen and fourteen
crops of wheat, without ever once manuring the
ground; while every third year, without either
ploughing or sowing, the farmer reaps no incon-
sider ble crop from wheat self-grown. The seed
time for wheat in the warmer parts is as early
as March, and in the colder, often as late as
September. The harvest time is from the latter
end of November, to the end of January. Oats
and barley are sown and reaped in the same
months; the former, which is sown once in three
years, is used for fodder, and yields on an average
about three tons of hay to the acre; oaten hay
must be very nutritious, as a horse, poor as a
skeleton, fed upon it alone, for a few weeks,
will be, at the end of that time, in first-rate
condition. Barley yields much about the same re-
turn as wheat, and is in great demand for the pur-
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SOIL* 47
poses of colonial distillation and brewing. The
climate and soil seem more propitious to the growth
of maize than of any other grain. It is sown in Octo-
ber and reaped in Apiil, and in proportion to the atten-
tion paid to its culture^ and the favourableness of the
season, it yields from twelve to seventy bushels per
acre. Maize is frequently so plentiful that a market,
at ho^vever low a price, can scarcely be obtained
for it.
The soil, formed of decomposed trap and lime-
stone, is very abundant in the colony, and the na-
tural grasses with which it is covered are very sac-
charine. Such land is supposed to be the best
adapted for grazing purposes, and indeed so succu-
lent is the herbage which grows on this land, that it
is not uncommon, after a hot summer has scorched
and dried up the grass, to find sheep fattening and
thriving as well as they could upon new and fresh
pasturage.
Nothing strikes the stranger who journeys for the
first time into the bush with so much astonishment,
as the extensive plains, and the extraordinary
rapidity with which their herbage at one time leaves
them and again returns. These plains, equal in size
to the savannahs of South America, and the prairies
of North America, are frequently as level as a bowl-
ing green, without a single tree to relieve a sea-like
monotony, which in some instances extends for thirty
and forty miles. In an excessively hot season, an
Australian plain, unprotected from the blighting
south-west wind, and unshaded from a burning
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48 ^ SOIL.
sun, has its herbage so completely scorched up, and
its naked earth so parched, that it yawns in deep and
broad fissures, assuming the appearance of an arid
and naked wilderness, without a single spot of green
to gladden the eye — a desert without its oasis.
There must, however, be some extraordinary re-
generating power in the soil of the Australian plain;
for, after perhaps a month of perfect nakedness, it
will, on the falling of not much more than an or-
dinary shower, suddenly assume a green tint, and in
an incredibly short space of time be covered with
grasses, as high and rich as those of English mea-
dows, and of such a fattening quality, as to entirely
supersede the use of artificial food for fattening
cattle.
The general soil of the colony is, I should say,
divided into that which is more or less good, and
that which is thoroughly barren and unproductive.
In the vicinity of sandstone rocks will always be
found a sandy and sterile tract of country, appa«
rently incapable of affording nourishment to the few
stunted and sapless eucalyptus bushes, and to the
hard and dry grasses with which it is thinly clothed;
and, I regret to say, so frequently do such de-
solate and dreary spots present themselves to the
traveller in the bush, that the heart becomes sick,
and for the time, perhaps, he envies the lot of the
lowest menial in old England.
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NEW SOUTH WALES. 49
CHAPTER IIL
Sydney — Gardens — Melbourne — Paramatta — Inland Towns— Coun-
ties — Population — Convicts — Emancipists — Mechanics — La-
bourers^Report of the Emigration Committee.
There is nothing of interest in the, so to speak,
very modem country of New South Wales to the
antiquarian ; it calls up no train of ideas that are
associated with the past, — ^it has no fossil remains of
any consequence, — ^not even the vestige, so far as I
know, of any one thing from which the curious might
deduce that Australia ever has been different from
what it was when Cook landed on its shores. Its
political history, likewise, is altogether of the pre-
sent ; it tells only of a country that is in the cradle, —
of a country that has but just thrown off its shell,
and emerged from a penal into a free settlement, —
whose population, in proportion to its extent, is most
limited, — whose resources are almost wholly unde-
veloped and unknown, — and the distance of which
from the mother land keeps many even in ignorance
D
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50 PORT JACKSON.
of its existence. But although the past history of
the colony is little better than a blank, it may, in
the course of time, form an important leaf in the
annals of England. At any rate, there can be no
doubt that it has made most gigantic strides to-
wards improvement since the days when England,
influenced by the reports of the illustrious Cook,
and compelled, by its acknowledgment of American
independence, to find a place for the transportation
of criminals, resolved to establish a penal settlement
on the Australian shores; and, should the end be
at all commensurate with the beginning, it is not
unreasonable to suppose that New South Wales will
rise to an importance equal even to that of North
America.
In 1787, a fleet, for the purpose of forming New
South Wales into a penal settlement, sailed from
England, carrying out a governor, officers, two
hundred and fifty soldiers, and seven hundred con-
victs. After a long passage, they arrived at Botany
Bay, but not finding this bay so favourable for
anchorage as they had been led to expect, they
directed their course northward, and discovered Port
Jackson, which, from the boldness of the coast, and
the narrow inlet to the harbour, Cook and others had
passed unnoticed. The Governor, Captain Phillip, with
a party of marines, and artificers chosen from among
the seamen and convicts, landed, and the noise of
the axe and saw soon broke the stillness which bad
formerly prevailed there. A sufficient space of
ground was soon cleared for the encampment of the
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SYDNEY. 51
whole party ; and when all were disembarked on the
new settlement, their numbers did not exceed one
thousand six hundred and twenty males and females.
A house made of canvass, brought out for the gover-
nor's use, together with temporary wooden buildings,
formed the first Australian settlement, and was
named Sydney, after the then secretary of state ;
but although little more than fifty years have elapsed,
these temporary buildings, and many succeeding
ones of much more substantial fabric, are now super-
seded by houses equal to those of any English
town.
Sydney is built in a valley, and on gentle slopes,
* extending upwards from one of the coves or bays of
Port Jackson. The streets are long, and run parallel
to each other, there being no squares or circular
places. The houses are lofty, and some which have
been built within the last few years would not do
discredit to Belgrave-square. Sydney is purely a
commercial town ; and its mills, steam engines, high
stores, and numerous wharfs, proclaim it such. With
the exception of Port Phillip, which although com-
paratively small, is rapidly increasing in size and
importance, Sydney is the only town of much note
in New South Wales. The length of the town
is about three miles, and the breadth about one
mile and a quarter. It contains 5,000 houses,
almost all of which are built of stone and brick ; and
its population, according to the Government census
taken in 1841, amounted to 29,973 souls.
There are but few of the public buildings in
d2
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52 SYDNEY.
Sydney which display much architectural taste.
The old Government House, which is a long and
melancholy-looking cottage, has been at last super-
seded by a very magnificent building of the Eliza-
bethan style of architecture. It is built of a very
beautiful white freestone ; and its site on the eastern
side of the town, and on an elevation which rises
almost perpendicularly from the sea, together with
the grandeur of its structure, gives it a magnificent
and imposing appearance: the building alone has
already cost the colony I believe upwards of 30,000t
St. James's church, which is the principal Episcopa-
lian place of worship, is a plain unpretending brick
building, with a tall, and rather handsome spire,
which forms a prominent feature in all the views of
Sydney. The Roman Catholic church is one of
the largest and most conspicuous edifices in Sydney,
and is built of freestone, in the form of a cross ; its
efiect, however, on the north and west sides is spoiled
by a very ugly and high belfiy, much resembling
an overgrown sentry-box.
The Sydney market houses, built in the centre
of the town, have rather a striking appearance.
They consist of a double range of narrow buildings,
covered in and divided into numerous small shops,
and extending about 200 feet in length. The
Courts, the Convict Barracks,, and the Legislative
House, are large brick buildings, quite destitute of
any pretensions to architecture. The present bar-
racks are built of brick, and occupy a large space in
the centre of the town; but as land in Sydney has
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PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 53
now become valuable, very extensive barracks are in
tbe course of erection about two miles from the
town, and ere long tbey will supersede those now occu-
pied by regiments quartered in Sydney. The new
jail, although not quite finished, promises to be a very
fine edifice : it is situated on a hill, distant about a
mile from the town, and covers a considerable area
of ground ; the outer wall is massive, and upwards of
thirty feet high; the jail is built of freestone, and
I do not doubt it will prove a very strong prison.
The new custom-house, and library, neither of which
are finished, promise to equal any of the buildings
in Sydney.
It is probably from the increasing number of the
shops, and their 'improved character, resembling, as
many now do, both outside and within, the shops of
the British capital, and from the great change which
is observable in the private buildings, where the
simple wooden verandah and lobby are fast giving
place to the balcony and vestibule, that the visitor at
first perceives the rapid strides that Australia has
made in fifty years; the number of societies and
institutions, however, that have taken root in what
little more than fifty years ago was a wilderness, is
the better criterion of the immense and rapid im-
provements that have taken place in New South
Wales.
There are five large and commodious Episcopalian
churches, besides a missionary congregational church,
supported by funds fi'om the London Missionary So-
ciety : this church will not accept of any assistance
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54 SYDNEY.
jfrom the congregation, either for the provision of its
minister, or for the purposes of building. St. An-
drew's (Dr. Lang's) church, and the Scots' church in
Pitt-street, afford ample room for the Presbyterians
in Sydney, although other places of worship for
Presbyterians are now building. The two Roman
Catholic churches, St. Mary's cathedral, and St.
Patrick's church, are spacious and fine edifices, and
prove that even in New South Wales, where most
persons study the usefiil more than the ornamental,
the Roman Catholics are ambitious of excelling in
display all other Christians. The Wesleyans form
a large part of the community of Sydney, and have
five or six chapels, besides numerous day schools.
There is one Baptist church, one Australian Methodist
chapel, and one Friends' meeting-house. The Jews*
synagogue is a small but handsome building; as
there are, however, a great number of Israelites in
Sydney, most of whom are wealthy, it is very pro-
bable that before long, other and larger synagc^es
will be built.
Among the many religious and charitable societies
in Sydney, the most useful are the Auxiliary Bible
Society, the Australian Religious Tract Society,
the Wesleyan Auxiliary Mission Society, the Ladies*
Bible Association, the Benevolent Society for the
Relief of the Destitute, the Sydney Dispensary, which
in one year relieved not less than 2,000 patients ;
and a very humane and useful society for the pur-
pose of relieving poor married women during the
month of their confinement.
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PUBLIC BUILDIKQS. 55
The banks are confessedly too numerous in pro-
portion both to the wealth and number of the com*-
munity. The Bank of New South Wales, which was
established in 1816, is tTie oldest in the colony,
and had for its original capital 300,0007. The Bank
of Australasia is composed for the most part of
English shareholders, and is the only one of the
Australian banks that is incorporated by royal
charter. The shares of the Union Bank of Australia
are held by persons in England, and residents in the
colony ; and although this bank has not as yet ob-
tained a royal charter, it is looked upon as one of
the safest and richest banks in the colony. The
Commercial Banking Company had 400,000/. for
its original capital; but it has lately returned one-
fourth of it, having been lying for some time
unemployed in its coffers. The Bank of Aus-
tralia and the Sydney Bank are now no more,
having for the last twelve months stopped payment ;
and although but little loss has been sustained by the
shareholders of the latter establishment, those of the
former have lost the whole amount of their shares.
The savings' bank, established in 1832, is found to be,
for the mechanic and labourer, a most useful institu-
tion, and if it continues will have a most beneficial
effect on the morals of the lower classes. In addi-
tion to these banks there are three or four English
and Scotch loan companies ; they chiefly, if not en-
tirely, consist of British capital, and as the amount of
money introduced by them into the colony has been
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56 SYDNEY.
very considerable, it is to be hoped that their loans
and investments were judiciously made.
The scientific and literary institutions, although few,
promise in the course of time to become useful and
important. The Museum is small, but well supplied
with birds, insects, shells, fish, minerals, fossils, and
with many curiosities collected in the South Seas.
The Australian Floral and Horticultural Societies,
which were not instituted until 1838, can boast of
many beautiful and rare flowers, plants, and fiiiits at
their half-yearly exhibitions. The Australian Sub-
scription Library, the Commercial Reading Rooms
tttid Library, and the Mechanics' School of Arts, are,
besides being useful, rich and well supported institu-
tions. There are many miscellaneous societies in
Sydney, and those that have done most good are the
Temperance and Total Abstinence Societies, of which
there are great numbers. Masonic Lodges, and others
of a similar kind, are numerous. The Australian
Club consists of about 200 members ; the entrance
fee is 251, and the annual subscription is 7/. 10^.; it
is a well conducted establishment, and does credit to
a country so new as New South Wales.
There are six newspapers published in Sydney.
" The Herald," which is published daily, has - the
widest circulation, and is considered the most con-
servative in its politics. The other papers, which are
published three times a week, remunerate the proprie-
tors, and have an extensive circulation. The most
remarkable characteristics of the Sydney papers are
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PRICE OF PBOYISIONS. 57
the advertisements, which usually occupy one half 6f
their columns, and which for the most part consist of
rewards oflFered for strayed or stolen cattle, and
notices from some not too uxorious hushand that he
will no longer be answerable for his wife's debts, A
monthly magazine was also started, but I believe
it has within the last few months died a natural
death. Pamphlets on local subjects, poems, and
novels have issued, from time to time, from the
Sydney press.
Auctions are held every day, and in various parts
of Sydney, where all sorts of colonial produce and
foreign goods are exposed for sale ; in fact, it is in
the auction-room that most of the important sales are
made. The market for wheat, maize, hay, and straw,
as well as for cattle, is at the extreme end of the town,
and during the continuance of a large sale this
market resembles, although in miniature, an English
cattle fair. Dairy and garden produce are to be pur-
chased at any time throughout the day at the]Sydney
market ; and some idea may be formed of the cheap**
ness of such produce, from the fact that at the close
of the year 1844, when I left New South Wales,
cheese was selling at 3(f., butter at 9cf., and bacon
and hams at Ad. the pound. Fowls and ducks at
2s., and geese and turkeys at 4^. and 5^. the pair,
and beef and mutton at Id. and l^d. the pound; and
while carrots, turnips, radishes, and cabbages were
selling at 2d. the bunch, French beans, peas, pump-
kins, cucumbers, lemons, oranges, pears, loquats, and
even pomegi:anates were proportionately low. The
D 6
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58 SYDNEY.
price of potatoes^ when I left Sydney, was from
IZ. lOs. to 21. per ton. There are numerous manu-
factories of cloth, rope, hats^ sperm and tallow can-
dles, and soap, and many tanneries, distilleries of
rum and gin, and breweries, foundries for casting
iron and potteries.
The gardens of Sydney, which are much admired
by all visitors, are beautifully situated on a slight
elevation or slope, which rises gradually from a small
bay on the eastern side of Sydney ; they are distant
about five minutes' walk from the new Government
House. The plan^ site, and general arrangement of
the gardens are as creditable to those who first de-
signed them, as their uniform good order, the cleanli-
ness of the walks and beds, and prc^essing improve-
ments are to the present managing committee. A
stone wall, about twenty feet in height, and run-
ning from east to west, divides the garden into
two. The garden on the south and land side is
devoted, for the most part, to botanical pur-
poses; in the centre a magnificent Norfolk pine,
planted when the garden was planned, attracts the
eye, while all around coral trees, with their rich
scarlet flowers, bread trees firom the Sandwich
Islands, olives, pomegranates, acacias covered with
misletoe, bananas, mimosas, Banksias, many spe-
cies of palms, and an infinite variety of other tropi-
cal trees are to be seen luxuriating in the same
ground with the English ash and oak. The other
garden is a beautiful parterre, extending nearly a
mile along the coast of a small but lovely bay, and h
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PUBLIC GARDEN AND PARK. 59
tastefully laid out in walks, green slopes, (on which
the idle or tired lie at fiill length,) and grass terraces
elevated a few feet above the level of the sea, while
all along, flowers of many countries, and of every
hue, delight the eye. In this garden there is a
pond of twenty feet in diameter, surrounded by
weeping willows of immense size ; and in the centre
of it stands a plain granite obelisk, dedicated to
the memory of Allan Cunningham, the Australian
botanist. The Sydney gardens present on Sun-
day afternoons a most animated scene ; persons of
all classes flock to them, and seem to forget
the toils and cares of the past week, in admira*
tion of the beauty and loveliness that surround
them.
Hyde Park, which is about two miles in circum-
ference, has been reserved as a pleasure ground for
the inhabitants of Sydney ; but as it is quite desti-
tute of timber, and consequently unprotected from
the sun, it is seldom used by the citizens as a pro-
menade, except towards the cool of the evening.
The Government domain, which is delightfully
situated and well shaded, is a pleasant drive, and as
a regimental band plays there twice a week, it is a
general rendezvous for the fashionable idlers of the
town on such days.
Sydney, in 1843, was, by an act of the Gover-
nor and Legislative Council, declared to be a city,
and its inhabitants incorporated. The qualification
is 20Z. ; the city is divided into six wards, each of
which returns four councillors. A mayor and six
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60 MELBOURNE.
aldermen are chosen by the councillors from among
their body. The duties of the corporation, however,
seem so closely dovetailed with those of the city
police establishment, the heads of which are ap-
pointed by the Government, that frequent collisions
take place, I believe, between them ; certain it is
that the respective bodies do not evince much good
will towards each other, if one is to judge from the
very plain language that has been used at late public
meetings.
Melbourne, the second town in importance in the
colony, is distant about 500 miles from Sydney,, and
is the capital of the Port Phillip district, and although
only brought prominently into notice as a settlement
within the last six or seven years, it has risen to the
highest rank among the Australian colonies as a pas-
toral country and immigration field. The town of
Melbourne is built on the east, or the north-east side
of the harbour, and as a maritime and commercial place
is at a considerable disadvantage, inasmuch as vessels
drawing more than eight feet of water cannot come
within some distance of the town. The river Yarra
Yarra, which empties itself into the sea, close to the
place,' has given to the coast in the vicinity of Mel-
bourne a tract of richer, and more fertile soil, than
most of the Australian coast enjoys. A local super-
intendent, or deputy-governor, and a local judge, re-
side at Melbourne. The town vrithin the last two
years has been incorporated, and enjoys all the rights
and privileges of a free city.
- The only other town which has as yet risen to any
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PARAMATTA— ^INLANB TOWNS. 61
important size in the colony is Paramatta. It is
situated on the western arm of Port Jackson^ and is
distant fifteen miles from Sydney. Paramatta con-
tains at present about 6000 inhabitants^ and is cele-
brated for its cloth, which is manufactured by female
convicts. The governor of the colony generally
spends three or four months of the year at this town,
and the vice regal lodge at Paramatta is a fine build-
ing, and very superior to the old government house
in Sydney. Too much praise cannot be given to the
Paramatta cloth. It has quite superseded the use of
west of England cloths in the bush, and from its elas-
tic qualities, the horseman finds it a pleasant and dur-
able fabric.
There are many small towns, called by the colonists
settlements, throughout New South Wales ; but as
they are for the most part inland towns, it is not
probable that they will become places of much traffic,
until the population and productions of the colony
have greatly increased. These villages consist, for
the most part, of one or two churches, a police
office or court-house, a jail, a bank, quarters for
a detachment of soldiers, one long line of stores,
supplied for the most part with linen cloth,
clothing, hardware, and those things which are
in most general use in the bush, and public houses
or taverns ad injinitam* (Every third house is a
•^public") The stores are kept by various classes
of men; and while the rich and well educated draw
from their traffic profits sufficient to enable them
to indulge in extravagant luxuries, the illiterate man
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62 NEW SOUTH WALES.
sometimes even unable to read and write, makes
money so fast, that his taste, whether it leads him
to become a useful member of the community,
or to hoard his acquired wealth, is marvellously
soon gratified. A successfiil colonial storekeeper
will out- Yankee Sam Slick in his soft sawder,
his knowledge of human nature, and in bargaining.
To the numerous " publics " may be attributed in a
great measure the general immorality of the working
classes in New South Wales, as through their instru-
mentality the man of industrious and sober habits is .
soon changed into a worthless, disgusting, and be-
sotted animal. In a climate so warm as New South
Wales, the same quantity of spirits which would not
have the effect of exciting the labouring man in
England, deprives the Australian labourer of all
sense and motion; and it is a subject of general
remark, that nearly all the murders and other atro-
cious crimes with which the assize calendars are
filled, have been committed by persons when in a
state of drunkenness.
The colony of New South Wales is divided into
twenty-one counties, the land outside the boundary
line, and Norfolk Island. According to the census
of 1841, the population was as follows : — Cumber-
land, which includes Sydney, 58,108; Northumber-
land, 9,975; Port Phillip district, 8,107; Camden,
6,286; Durham, 6,238; Aigyll, 3,397; Cook,
2,892; Bathurst, 2,465; Macquarie, 2,409 ; Murray,
2,111; St Vincent, 1,762; Brisbane, 1,660; Rox-
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CENSUS OF 1841. 6d
burgh, 1,520; Gloucester, 1,424; Huntcfr, 999;
Georgiana, 749; Westmoreland, 619; King, 598;
Bligh, 566 ; Wellington, 510; Phillip, 453; beyond
the boundaries, 12,711 ; Norfolk Island, 2,187.
These amount in all to 130,835. A census taken in
1836 makes the population of the colony to amount
in that year to 77,096.
In comparing the census of 1836 with that of
1841, I find that the county of St. Vincent (com-
paratively not a new district) has increased nearly 200
per cent, in five years, or 40 per cent, in one year ;
while the districts of Port Phillip, Moreton Bay, and
others, had no place in the census of 1836. It is a
fact, which may argue much for the fiiture advance-
ment of the colony, that while England takes forty-
two years, and France 105 years, to double their
population. New South Wales, according to the three
last censuses, doubles itself in seven.
For every hundred males in the colony, there are
only fifty females; the numbers being, at the 1841
census, 87,298 males, and 43,558 females, of whom
36,358 were married persons. Therefore, it is sup-
posed that if the whole unmarried population were
now old enough, and wished to be married, out of
every remaining hundred bachelors, not much more
than forty could get wives, while for the unsuccess-
ful sixty not a female would be left. This great
disparity of females has not resulted fi'om natural
causes, for while the colonial births in 1840 were
2,119 males, and 2,114 females, the preceding five
years show an equally fiEiir proportion of male and
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64 DISPABITY OF THE SEX£S.
female births : but it is referable to an unequal emi-
gration and transportation of females compared ^vith
males. It is much to be desired, since transportation
to New South Wales was discontinued in 1840, and
with it the frightful disparity of something less than
twenty females to a hundred males, that the atten-
tion of those who interest themselves in colonial
emigration will be drawn to the benefit that New
South Wales would derive from a steady introduction
from time to time of female emigrants, until the
sexes are at least more fairly balanced than at pre-
sent ; for it is evident that such a disparity as fifty
females to a hundred males must be highly prejudi-
cial to the moral welfare of the community.
The bond or convict population of the colony in
1841, and which was included in the census of that
year, amounted to 26,977 ; this number comprised,
first, 6,159 ticket-of-leave-holders, who, for good
behaviour, had their sentence remitted, in so far that
they were allowed to live, work, or trade, in whatever
way they chose, receiving all profits arising from
their labour and appropriating them as they thought
fit, so long as they conducted themselves pro-
p^rly, and did not attempt to leave the colony. Se-
condly, 7,639 persons who fi-om bad behaviour or
other causes were retained in government employ-
ment; and thirdly, 13,181 persons who being assigned
as convict servants to settlers, previous to 1841, (in
which year assignment and transportation to the
colony ceased) were allowed to remain in such private
service, until the period of their respective sentences
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CONVICTS. 65
either terminated, or they from good behaviour
became subjects for indulgence and remission of
punishment; and now that transportation to New
South Wales has entirely ceased^ the convicts
will before long form but an insignificant fraction
of the general population of the colony, always
assuming that the tide of emigration which ap-
peared so strongly to have set in for New South
Wales two years ago, keep steady, and the increase
of colonial births progress in the same ratio it has
done of late years.
It is sincerely to be hoped that the withdrawal of
convicts from New South Wales, will eventually be
attended with much moral benefit to the community,
while it cannot be denied, that the physical improve-
ments, and rapid progress made by the colony, are to
be attributed to the convict population, which sup-
plied men of enterprize with labour without hire.
These convicts not only advanced the interests of the
colony, but many of them became, through perseve-
rance, sobriety, and steadiness, possessors of large for-
tunes, and highly useful members of society ; the worst
even were of use to the colony, for although heavily
chained they were employed, in making roads in the
interior, and the colonist, with whatever moral repug-
nance he may now look upon the man in chains,
dressed in the yellow and grey livery of the doubly
convicted felon, must confess, that if it had not been
for these hardened villains, the pasture lands of the
interior would never have been grazed over.
The system which the colonial government in-
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66 CONSIGNED CONVICTS.
variably followed in its management of convicts,
seemed to me one of humanity and wisdom, offering
to the criminal who was capable of being reformed,
the opportunity of obtaining as good, and in most
cases a higher standing than he had ever held in the
mother country, and punishing with never more than
due severity the hardened criminal. The system the
government pursued was, on the arrival of a con-
vict ship, to reserve for the public service, as many
of the convict labourers, mechanics, or others, as it
required, and to assign the rest to settlers, on pro-
per applications transmitted to the convict office ; but
those settlers who either returned their assigned
servants to government, without first endeavouring
to reform them, or who were known to treat their
men with inhumanity (stinting them either in food
x)r clothing) or infringed the code of regulations
which so amply protected the convict servants,
had not only their applications disregarded, but were
deprived of any convicts that might formerly have
been assigned to them. The assigned convicts' life
was not an unhappy one, and when well treated, they
were most useful to their masters ; at least mine were
so, and I had seven men assigned to me in 1840,
some of whom had committed bui^laries of a very
atrocious kind, and one of them had committed
murder, but on account of some alleviating circum-
stances, got off with transportation. These men lived
amicably, and contentedly with each other, and were
obedient, hard-working, and Qivil in their demeanour ;
indeed so well did they behave, that during more
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TICKBT-OF-LEAVE HOLDER. 67
than four years that they were with me, I never had
occasion to punish but one of them ; and although
they had frequent opportunities of committing or
conniving at thefts^ I never was robbed but once^
and then through their intervention I had every thing
restored to me. I have, consequently, no reason to
speak otherwise than well of the convict servant;
and as I have also employed immigrants, I do not in
ignorance draw a comparison between them, perhaps
in favour of the convict servant — who, for hard work,
faithfulness, and obedience to orders, I would, in
many instances, prefer to the Australian immi-
grants. Convicts, however, must be treated with
firmness; and punishment, when merited, must
be visited upon them with an unsparing hand. At
the same time, it must always be remembered that
they are men, and should be treated as such. This
is the only plan I adopted, and it proved, at least «o
&r as I saw, an efficacious one.
After the convict servant had served four or five
years, and if his conduct had been exemplary, he
became a ticket-of-leave-holder ; and, on the ticket
being held for a few years, the holder was entitled to
a "conditional pardon," which, while it confined him
to the colony, could not be taken firom him ,at the
will of the colonial executive. It was during these
two stages that fortunes, now immense, were com-
menced by the frugal, sober, and industrious. And
who can say, that had it not been for the rewards
and indulgences judiciously held out, the present
emancipists, now often useful members of the Aus-
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68 FEMALE CONVICTS.
trdian community, would not again have returned
to their crimes.
' Convict servants who misbehaved were brought
up before the neighbouring bench of magistrates,
and, on their crimes being proved, were sentenced
to receive fifty or a hundred lashes, if their offences
were slight; but if their gpilt was of a more fla-
grant character, they were sentenced to be worked
in chains in the road gangs, for spaces of time pro-
portioned to the magnitude of their offence.
Female convicts were assigned immediately on their
landing, as house servants, to respectable married
applicants : they were also entitled to the indulgence
of " tickets-of-leave " and " conditional pardons ;'*
but among women "cV^^ fe premier pas qui coute^
seems to be very apposite,— it is at least so among
the female convicts of Australia ; and few, if any of
them, have either improved in morality, or have
been found deserving of the slightest indulgence.
On conviction of misdemeanours, female convicts
were removed from private service, and placed in
confinement in the Paramatta Factory, where they
were, and still are, kept employed in manufacturing
a cloth which, although of a coarse description, is
now almost universally worn in the interior.
Wealth, all-powerful as it is, has not been able
hitherto to efface a very strong prejudice, and line of
demarcation, which has all along been observed by
the emigrant settlers towards the emancipists and
their descendants. The rich emancipist, although a
shrewd man, is perfectly illiterate, and his children.
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EMANCIPISTS. 69
who are brought up, for the most part^ to regard a
knowledge of cattle, sheep, and horses, together with
sharpness in making a bargain, as the grand deside-
ratum, seem to have a great contempt for wisdom
acquired through the medium of books, and to
regard wealth as the standard by which mankind are
alone to be valued. There is, however, a great
change for the better in this respect, among the
younger scions of this not very noble stock ; which,
although greatly attributable to the improvements
made within the last twelve years in the Aus-
tralian schools, has been in some part caused
by the late influx of immigrants, capital, and re-
spectability.
The emancipist, with his wife, daughters, and
sons, dressed in the height of fashion, or rather
I should say finery, are to be seen in all parts
of the colony, lolling, not too gracefully, in their gay
carriages, drawn by well bred and spirited horses ; —
but who is without vanity? The same emancipist
will, however, besides private charity, be among the
first and greatest contributors to a new church ; and
his gaudily dressed daughters will, I do not doubt,
sympathize with the distresses of the unfortunate,
and have all the finer feelings quite as sensitive as
other women ; still they are atrociously fond of bright
colours, and their hands are somewhat of the coarsest.
The son, certainly not the best of the family, has
his redeeming qualities ; he is at any rate a good
judge of horses, never riding any but those of the
first calibre. He is quite at home, too, in the treat-
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70 EMANCIPISTS.
ment of sheep and cattle, and is on horseback, ac-
tively employed in some business relative to his
stock, at the dawn of day. It is true, he '* swears a
trifle," and uses most undrawing-room-like language.
His waistcoat is covered with huge chains ; and his
coarse, and not too clean fingers, ar« bedizened
with numerous rings. A cigar, or pipe, is his
favourite, and almost constant companion. He is
a great supporter of races, subscribing liberally to
them ; runs good horses, and freely, but judiciously,
gives and takes the odds. It would be doing an in-
justice to some of the emancipists and their descend-
ants if I neglected to say, that in improving the
breeds of sheep, cattle, and horses, by importing
from the mother country stock of the best and most
expensive kinds, they are second to no class of men
in the colony, and that some of them deserve to be
ranked among the more respectable classes of the
Australian community.
According to the census of 1841, which was the
first census taken in Australia that distinguished the
emigrants firom those born in the colony, and which
classed the occupations of the inhabitants, it ap-
pears that there were in that year 29,445 males
and females born in the colony, and 52,903 male
and female immigrants; and that the occupation
of the whole population, free and bond, was as
follows : — landed proprietors, merchants, bankers,
and professional persons, 4,477; shopkeepers and
other retail dealers, 1,774; mechanics and artificers,
10,715; shepherds, stockmen, and &rm servants.
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29,618 ; domestic servants, 9,825 : all other persons
not included in these classes are convicts in Govern-
ment employment, women and children.
Of the 52,903 emigrants, I have no means at hand
of ascertaining the exact number that have come
out to the colony, having obtained their passages at
the expense of the revenue derived from the sale of
the Government lands in New South Wales ; but from
the immense sum expended in emigration, the
number of Government oflScers and functionaries, of
settlers and farmers, of professional persons, mer-
chants, shopkeepers, and others, that the census of
1841 enumerates, together with my knowledge that
many who arrived in the colony with a few hundred
pounds are now occupying menial situations, I am
inclined to believe that the class of emigrants who
have come out to New South Wales at the expense
of the colonial land- fund exceeds 40,000.
Many pamphlets have been written as to the
passage, food, and the care that is generally paid in
the emigrant ships to the comforts of those emi-
grants who obtain free passages; and from what I
myself have seen, I believe that although there are
some very glaring exceptions, the labourers and me-
chanics, who form the male part of this class c(f
emigrants, and the servant-maids, n^illiners, and
others of which the female part is composed, have
generally nothing to complain of in the treatment
they receive while on board. These emigrants are
classed, put in messes of five or six, according as the
surgeon superintendent may arrange, and are well fed,
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72 MECHANICS.
getting always a fixed and sufficient quantity of
breads meat^ coffee^ tea, sugar^ and "water, with
raisins, rice, and other things, which must be lux-
uries to many of them, twice a week. The passage,
which is long, and monotonous, affords ample time
and occasion for the display of quarrelsome and dis-
contented dispositions ; and as on board an emigrant
ship, one malignant spirit is sufficient to breed dis-
turbance among hundreds, it is not to be wondered at
if on their arrival in Sydney, a pretty general bad
feeling prevails throughout the emigrant ships.
So far as I can judge, any statement which would
induce mechanics to emigrate to New South Wales
at the present time, ought not to be listened to ; for
although good wages are given to first-rate workmen,
— carpenters, cabinet-makers, coach-makers, painters
and glaziers, saddlers and harness-makers, and stone-
masons, receiving as much as IZ. 12^. per week, and
blacksmiths, bakers, butchers, bricklayers, shoe-
makers, coopers, tinsmiths, and tanners obtain on the
average weekly wages of IZ. 5s. , — yet employment for
mechanics generally is excessively scarce.
So scarce was employment for such individuals
in the commencement of 1844, that there were not
less than 400 mechanics out of employment in
Sydney alone ; and it is more than probable, firom
the immense change which the whole colony has
undergone within the last four years in its monetary
affairs, that there will be, for a considerable time to
come, a comparative cessation in the erection of
private buildings, and in the demand for the more
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SHEPHERDS AND FARM SERVANTS. 73
oraamental kinds of furniture ; consequently a further
introduction at present of mechanics would have
the eflFect of making the supply of mechanical
labour far exceed the demand. A few mechanics
within the last two years left the colony, and pro-
' ceeded to South America, where I am told they have
been even less fortunate than in New South Wales,
not being able to obtain employment of any kind,
whereas employment as shepherds and farm servants
was always open to them in the colony. Indepen-
dently of the manifest injustice which mechanics
have sustained by being induced to emigrate in such
a wholesale way, the colony itself suffered much
by being overstocked with a class of persons that
it did not want ; and the colonists think they have
reason to be discontented, for the proceeds of the
sale of lands in the colony during the last six years,
amounting in all to 1,000,000/. sterling, had been
expended in the introduction of immigrants from
the mother country, without proper regard being
paid to the description of immigrants that New South
Wales was most in need of.
As pastoral and agricultural labour constitutes the
medium through which colonial enterprize for a
considerable time will be carried on, it follows that
shepherds and farm servants are the class of la-
bourers most adapted to the colony ; and while there
can be no doubt that the supply of this class is far
from being s^ufficient to the present demand, the
almost geometrical proportion in which sheep in-
crease in the colony, must tend to augment the
E
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74 RATE OF WAGES.
demand for such labour to an annual increase of. at
least twenty-five per cent. The wages, however,
of 1841 and 1842, which rose suddenly, on the
stoppage of the assignment system, to 35^ and 40Z.
per annum, with full rations for shepherds and farm
servants, will never again be given in the colony;
for two years' experience has proved to the flock-
masters, that the profits of grazing will not enable
them to pay wages at such a rate, and the sad re-
source of slaughtering sheep and cattle, and boiling
them down for tallow, which was last year so gene-
rally adopted by the settlers, will be always resorted
to when labour is so scarce and high priced as to
render the increase of sheep and cattle unprofitable
to the stockholder. The labourer emigrating to
New South Wales must, therefore, abjure the delu-
sion under which many come out, that he has only
to ask what wages he chooses, with the certainty of
getting them.
However, there can be little doubt that 5,000
labourers annually emigrating to New South Wales
would find immediate employment, provided that
they were willing to take, as single men, 12Z. per
annum, with lodging, fiiel, candles, and a weekly
ration of 10 lbs. of meat and 10 lbs. of flour, and a
proportionate allowance of tea, sugar, and tobacco.
Newly married couples, again, when the man
would act as a shepherd, and his wife as hut-keeper,
must be content with wages and rations for each,
similar to those of the single man; and as their
clothes would not cost, even if they were extrava-
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BATE OF WAGES. 75
gant, more than 3/. per annum, each immigrant would
have 91. to lay by yearly, or to invest in stock,
which, if they were deserving of it, their mas-
ters would keep for them free of charge. It is in-
credible with what rapid strides thrifty and hard-
wcH-king labourers ascend the ladder in Australia.
In a few years their stock of cattle or sheep has in-
creased to an astonishing number, and they find them-
selves in a position to commence business on their
own account, and in their turn, again, become em-
ployers of labour. With others, however, and by far
the greater number, whether, as of old, their wages
were 40/. a year, or as at present, when the average is
not upwards of 16^, money has no attraction beyond
the quantity of rum it can obtain ; and I sincerely
believe, that the publicans are much more displeased,
and grumble more at the reduction of wages, than
the labourers themselves. Although it would be im-
politic to make any invidious comparison between
the English and Irish immigrants, it would be unfair
to the English immigrant to pass unnoticed his supe-
riority to the Patlander, who is generally esteemed
so comparatively unsuitable that an immigrant ship
from Ireland is less anxiously looked forward to, and
causes less interest, than one from England or Scot-
land. This observation of course only applies to the
Irish immigrant labourer, and to him it would be an
injustice if I were not to say that there are many
Irishmen who, originally labourers in the colony,
are now employers of labour : in fact, the remark
does not personally go farther than this, that I would
E 2
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76 REPORT OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
not hire an Irishman in New South Wales when I
could get, even at a little higher wages, either an
Englishman or Scotchman of the same experience.
The labourers from the English and Scotch farming
counties are those most prized in the colony, yet any
man or lad, who will be obedient to his master's
orders, and is not excessively dull, will in six months
become an efficient shepherd.
The select committee of the Legislative Council
appointed, on the I8th August, 1843, to take into
consideration the necessity and means for reviving
immigration, and for ensuring an adequate and
continuous introduction of shepherds and agricul-
tural servants, after a most elaborate inquiry, re-
ported, among other matters, that they were unani-
mously of opinion that the supply of shepherds and
agricultural labour was inadequate to the wants
of the colony, and that it was indispensable to its
future prosperity that a periodical supply from the
mother country should be introduced. They further
reported, that four thousand shepherds and farm
servants introduced annually into the colony, would
readily find employment at rates of wages of firom
10/. to 121 per annum, with lodgings, fuel, and full
rations of meat, bread, tea, and sugar, and that a
much greater number would not fail to be employed,
although perhaps at reduced wages. The commit-
tee laid much stress on the injudicious and profuse
manner in which artisans had been introduced into
the colony, and animadverted very strongly on the
injustice done to the colony in obliging it to pay
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FEMALE IMMIGRANTS. 77
for the introduction of a class of persons it did not
require, and who were neither useful to the colony
as producers or consumers.
The report of the Immigration Committee, which,
in so far at least as regards the present supply and
demand for labour, only echoes the opinion of every
stockholder in the colony, opposes the introduction
of married persons with young families, a class
which so far as the future population of the country
is concerned, would be all important. The com-
mittee did not seem to have occupied themselves with
the advantages that the morals of the colony would
derive from a plentiful and well-regulated introduc-
tion of single female immigrants from the agricultural
districts of the mother country: there is, perhaps,
a prejudice in the minds of some to the introduction
of single females, arising from the lax morals of
many of the single women who have immigrated ;
but it is uncharitable to conclude that because the
over-populated towns of England and Ireland have
sent to the Australian shores persons frequently of
dissolute characters, that a well-regulated immigration
of females from the agricultural districts, would be
attended with the like results.
In all the well-ordered establishments in the colony,
there are few duties which a woman is not as capable
of performing as a man, and there can be no doubt
that one of the greatest moral evils in New South
Wales, is the small proportion of women, as com-
pared with the number of men. No one can journey
far in the " bush " without perceiving that wherever
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78 FEMALE Uf MIGRANTS.
a woman^ unless of a very abandoned character^ is to
be met, all around bears a more refined, or perhaps
the better phrase would be, less savage aspect;
indeed the traveller can always tell, when within a
few hundred yards of the shepherd's hut, whether a
woman is there, bv the garden, the general look of
comfort, and the indescribable cleanliness and neat-
ness for which we look in vain in those localities
where the *' lords of the creation" alone reside.
The assize calendars testify to the heinous nature of
the crimes committed in the places where women
are most scarce.
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MOTIVES TO EMIGRATE. 79
CHAPTER IV.
Immigrants of capital — Professions — Merchants — Shopkeepers —
Settlers — Sheep-farming — Its profits — High price of labour —
Insolvents — Homed cattle — Horse stock— Persons adapted for
settlers.
It would be absurd to suppose that emigration to a
colony so far distant as New South Wales is from
England^ is dictated more by motives of choice than
necessity, and any man in receipt of a comfortable
income would stultify himself who journeyed 16,000
miles to a colony of fifty years' standing, for the pur-
pose of taking up his abode, while the whole of
Europe, with its various climes, luxuries, and com-
forts, were within his reach. The man of moderate
independence, who can live at home^ and educate his
children in the manner in which all English gentle-
men wish to do, would be wrong, I think, if he
emigrated to any colony ; and if such a person were
to go to New South Wales, he would soon become
discontented, for he would be more sensitive than
others to the great diflFerence that exists between a
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80 IMMIGRANTS OF CAPITAL.
new colony, (where all who have any hope of succeed-
ing actively employ themselves in some colonial busi-
ness,) and the advanced and highly civilized country
which he had left And, worse than all, he would
find, if he did not before long acquire a sounder judg-
ment than the act of emigration evinced, that the
riches he brought out with him would fast pass from
him. Neither should any Utopian dreams lead those
who, from vice, idleness, or crime, failed to succeed at
home to expect that, in New South Wales, they will
be more fortunate, unless fully determined to change
their way of life, and bring all their energies into
play ; for without activity, either moral or physical,
no one can now succeed in New South Wales.
Persons of the more refined class best adapted for
colonists are those who, enjoying health, activity, and
youth, have capitals averaging from 1,000/. to 10,000/.
sterling ; and professional persons possessed of small
capitals, and of abilities which, unappreciated at home,
may pass in small communities as something above the
common; and judging from the standing in society,
and from the apparent affluence of many of the mem-
bers of the three learned professions, I have but little
doubt that the respectable British immigrant at the
present moment, whether belonging to the clerical,
legal, or medical profession, would succeed.
The interior of the colony affords an ample field
for young clerical men, who have zeal enough to pene-
trate into the bush, and exert themselves in the dis-
semination of Christian knowledge. Such men are
much esteemed among the settlers, at whose stations.
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PROFESSIONS. 81
however remote, they will always find a kind and wel-
come reception, besides every assistance and facility
that may be required for furthering the religious in-
struction of the shepherds and other servants employed
on the stations, so long as these instructions do not
interfere with the necessary duties of the establish-
ment All hopes of instructing the aborigines in
Christian knowledge have been long since aban-
doned, and the young divine will have to confine
himself exclusively to evangelizing men of his own
colour. A horse and valise, with a few shirts and a
bible, are all the worldly goods he requires; the
squatter's cottage or hut will, with all it possesses,
be open to him, and for as long a period as he
chooses ; and above all, if well educated, and not too
ascetic, he will require neither money nor scrip ; all
will respect him, and, if I may be permitted to regard
the matter in a worldly point of view, I may add my
conviction, that in a short time such a person would
accumulate a pretty large nest egg; and who will
deny that the labourer is worthy of his hire ?
The towns, of course, are the only places for persons
of the legal profession, and I do not think that to suc-
ceed in this line, particularly as barristers, is nearly so
difiicult as it has been represented ; young barristers
who cannot have had much experience, and whose
talents are, I do not suppose, greatly above mediocrity,
apparently are much employed, and must be reahzing
very comfortable fortunes. Attorneys are certainly
very numerous, still I think men of good character
and fair abilities would, after becoming well ac-
£ 5
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82 MERCHANTS.
quainted with the forms of the courts, and, what is
of more consequence to the colonial practitioner,
with the habits of the people, acquire at least busi-
ness enough to keep themselves fully employed ; and
if, in course of time, they established reputations
for honesty, zeal, and talent, business of a remu-
nerating kind would pour in upon them. It would
be a calumny to say that the attorneys in New South
Wales, as a body, are not respectable; but per-
haps it is not uncharitable to state, that there are
among them many sharp practitioners whom men
of more English principle would soon supersede.
Many medical men have succeeded well both in
the bush and in the towns, and have realized very
independent fortunes. The towns, I believe, are
now over supplied with medical men ; but in this
profession, more perhaps than in any other, the
man of good moral character, and talent, is almost
certain of succeeding, and of supplanting those
whose conduct can less bear close inspection. A
medical man combining cheap farming, with his pro-
fession, in any of the well populated districts, so long
as he is economical, and does not allow the one
duty to infringe too much on the other, has every
chance of succeeding.
The merchants are at the present time a very
different body of men, with regard to the outward
appearance of wealth, from what they were up to
the close of 1841. Among the principal mercantile
houses of that year, but very few remain now sol-
vent; the carriages, in which they formerly rolled.
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MERCHANTS. 83
are now converted into unpretending hackney-
coaches : their well-fed butlers^ and smart livery
servants, are changed into shepherds ; their plate has
long since passed through the auctioneer's crucible ;
their almost gorgeous mansions are stripped of their
furniture, and they themselves walk about discon-
tented and morose. A few, perhaps, of stronger
minds, benefiting by their misfortunes, and having
gained experience, are again trying gradually to
ascend the height from which they fell. There was,
however, another class, calling themselves mer-
chants, but I am glad to say they were few, who,
living in great extravagance previously to 1841, took
advantage of the Colonial Insolvent Act and be-
came bankrupt ; but, unlike most ruined men, they
did not abate one iota of their former extravagance ;
their houses, carriages, and servants remained the
same ; their wives, somehow or other, suddenly
became heiresses, in their own right ; all their
kith and kin had legacies left them ; while
all those who were connected with them in busi-
ness matters, if honest, were left penniless. How
these men have escaped punishment is an enigma
to many, as there can be no doubt that they had
all the attributes of thorough-paced swindlers —
adventurers generally at the onset. The day after
they proclaimed themselves bankrupts saw them
and their families as rich, as the most success-
ful honest career could have made them. For
the credit of Australia, I am glad to say that the
number of these swindlers is few, and that by far
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84, MERCHANTS. .
the greater part of the embarrassed colonists gave
up every shilling they had to their creditors.
Extravagance, a crime prevalent in every class of the
Australian community, might have assisted in caus-
ing the ruin of the merchants ; but the coup de grace
was given by a sudden and immense depreciation
on the English market in the price of wool and oil, —
commodities in which the Australian merchant dealt
very largely. Besides this, another very powerful
cause in expediting the ruin of some of the mer-
chants w^as a land mania, which in 1839 seized most
classes of the community, and which unfortunately
the banks first fostered by indiscriminate and whole-
sale discounts ; but the more than folly of the land
mania was not felt until the banks, two years after-
wards, apparently as indiscriminately as suddenly,
called in their debts. The result was, that the lands
which had been wildly purchased were as recklessly
thrown into the market, and, it would seem, for the
first time narrowly scrutinised, and found to be of
comparatively little value. The mad speculators' eyes
were opened — the dream had passed, — and the land
which hard cash and borrowed money had purchased
with avidity at prices above \h per acre proved to be
unsaleable at half a crown. Other causes, highly
prejudicial to the general welfare of the inhabitants,
although not perhaps directly connected with the
business of the merchants, rushed at the same time,
like a destroying angel, upon the colonists, and as-
sisted not a little in their destniction.
In spite, however, of these many failures, the
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SHOPKEEPERS. 85
merchants who confine themselves strictly and ho-
nestly to the duties of consignees, and have good
mercantile connections in other countries, are sure
of succeeding. A friend of mine assured me that his
profits of commission as a consignee agent amounted
not unfrequently to 2,000Z. and 3,000Z. per annum,
while the consigner's property had very often sold
in the colony at 251. per cent, advance on the in-
voice prices. Consignments of goods, judiciously
made to persons of integrity, would, at the present
time, be highly remunerating to the consigner
as well as to the consignee, more particularly as con-
fidence in the Australian colonies has latterly been
much shaken; and unless that confidence is soon
restored, English goods will become before long ex-
cessively scarce and dear.
There are decidedly too many shopkeepers in the
colony, in proportion to the number of inhabitants ;
and I do not think that many of them have made for-
tunes, if the publicans are excepted. Some of this
latter class, what with private distilleries, adulteration
of spirits, usurious pawnbroking, and chalking double
against their drunken customers, have accumulated
much money ; and only those who have been in New
South Wales can imagine in what a very short time
persons perfectly uneducated amass fortunes as Aus-
tralian publicans. It would be superfluous to say,
that there are many exceptions, and I do not doubt
that honesty and industry meet their reward in this
class as in others.
The settlers and squatters are, for the most part
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86 SETTLEE8.
persons who have emigrated to the colony with
capitals varying from £1,000 to £10,000. These form
the most respectable portion of the Australian com-
munity, and are, besides, the greatest producers and
consumers, as from their enterprise, money, and la-
bour, all colonial produce flows ; and in supplying
their establishments most of the imports are con-
sumed. Of late years the settlers have much improved,
and this class of the Australian community consists of
cadets of respectable families, with patrimonies of
£4,000 or £5,000, — the most dangerous sum a young
man can have; for while it often deters him from
engaging at an early age in some active employment
at home, it is quite insufficient to support him in
idleness; — of younger sons, who, either from deficiency
in talent, interest, or other cause, were obliged to give
up their professions, or unremunerating employment,
and whose sires gave them a few thousand or hun-
dred pounds to go a wool-gathering ; — of young
Oxonians, Cantabs, military and naval officers, whose
sanguine temperaments induced them to prefer
employing their energies in a country where enter-
prise and activity had, in many instances, been
so well rewarded; and of respectable families of
moderate capital, the heads of which, not being en-
gaged in any business or profession at home, had
no means of properly providing for the settlement
of their children, and had no hope of their small
incomes increasing at any future time if they re-
mained in Great Britain. Is it to be wondered at that
among such a motley crew, — all with money in their
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SETTLERS. 87
pockets, and most of them without knowledge of the
world, and taking all that glittered for gold, — many
have drawn blanks in the great lottery of emigration.
The settlers, properly speaking, are those who,
either by purchases or grants, are possessed of landed
property within the boundary; and the squatters
those who live and depasture their sheep and cattle
outside the boundary. By the boundary is meant a
line that separates the land already surveyed and
divided into counties, and which the colonial govern-
ment have either sold or are preparing to sell,
from the lands in the interior, called in the colony
"bush," which are not surveyed, and which the
Government do not as yet oflFer for sale, but allow, on
payment of an annual license fee or rent, the sheep
and cattle of the squatter to graze over. As, how-
ever, of late years, all the wealthier settlers have
occupied, besides their private properties, squatting
latids for the purposes of grazing their herds and
flocks, while most capitalists who have lately emi-
grated confine themselves to lands outside the boun-
dary, any invidious distinction that may have for-
merly existed between the settlers and squatters has
quite disappeared ; and at the present time all flock-
masters, whether within or without the boundary,
are denominated throughout the colony, settlers.
Settlers who reside on their grants or purchases
have, according to their means, built of free-stone,
brick, or weather-boards, cottages and houses,
with from four to eighteen and twenty rooms in
them. The richer settlers have also very superior
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88 SETTLERS.
Stone and brick out-buildings^ coach-houses, and
stables ; but in most instances buildings of this de-
scription are made of weather-boards or slabs. In
the immediate vicinity of these buildings there are
orchards, gardens, and cultivated fields. Naturally
clear lands, of superior quality, often extending
for many hundreds of acres, with not more than a
dozen trees on them, form a very prominent feature
in the grants or purchases of the settlers ; and this
gives to such enclosures the appearance of large and
beautiful parks, not unlike those of England.
Many settlers have, within the last few years,
occupied themselves in planting vineyards, and are
annually increasing them according to their means.
At the commencement of 1844, there were 500 acres
of vines in cultivation, from which 30,000 gallons
of wine, and 750 gallons of brandy, were made;
but as many of the vines had been recently planted,
and were not in full bearing, this return forms no
criterion of the produce of the Australian vine.
A knowledge of the most favourable sites, of the
grapes best adapted for each peculiar soil and climate,
and of the peculiarity in the fermentation and manu-
facture of wine, can only be acquired by experience
and observation ; nevertheless, as many persons are
at present interesting themselves in the growth of
colonial wine, while the climate is as good, if not
better adapted than any other, for the production of
grapes of all kinds, it is possible that settlers may, in
a few years, derive as much profit fi"om their vine-
yards as they ever did from sheep -farming. Indeed,
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SBTTLERS. 89
it has been proved that, after the fourth year,an acre
of vines in the colony has produced as much as 500
gallons of ^ine.
The settlers who farm their lands do not generaUy
grow more wheat or corn than is required for the
maintenance of their sheep and cattle establishments.
The fields are seldom, if ever, manured, and a rota-
tion of crops is not considered of any use ; indeed,
it would be ruinous to the farmer to cultivate his
grounds in a more scientific and expensive manner, as
for a series of years there may be a supply of wheat
in the colony far exceeding the demand ; and all
of a sudden a drought may occur, causing, perhaps
for two years, a universal failure in the crops. The
weavel, which is very prevalent throughout the
colony, has hitherto prevented settlers from storing
their wheat; but the building of siloes, which has
been introduced within the last two or three years,
will, when universally adopted, be of the greatest
use, not only to the colonial farmer, but to the com-
munity at large.
An idea may be formed of the fluctuating prices
obtained by the farmer, firom the following facts : —
In 1838, wheat sold at 2L the bushel, and oaten hay
at 40Z. a ton ; at the close of 1844, wheat with diffi-
culty realized 2*. 6d. the bushel, and oaten hay
1/. 5s, a ton. The average price of wheat from 1839
to 1844 was 45. the bushel.
At the commencement of 1844, there were within
the boundaries 145,653 acres of land laid down in
wheat, maize, barley, oaten hay, and tobacco: of
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90 SETTLERS.
this 78,000 acres were wheat, which produced
1,000,225 bushels ; and this, as the population stood
in 1841, would give 1 lb. and a considerable fraction
of flour to each man, woman, and child, per day.
The settlers outside the boundary do not employ
much money in buildings or cultivation ; they live,
in most instances, in slab huts, of two or three
rooms, with walls unplastered, and floors, &c. made
of hard clay. These huts are covered either with
bark or thatch. If more extravagant, or married^
they have at best a weather-board and thatched
cottage, divided into a few rooms on the ground
floor, with walls, ceilings, and floors made of
deab not too closely joined together; while very
simple verandahs, &cing the south, complete the
dwellings of those who often own as many as 10,000
sheep. The out-buildings, such as huts for shep-
herds and other servants, wool sheds, and stables,
are of the most rude kind, and do not cost in building
more than a few pounds.
Vegetable gardens of about half an acre, fenced in
with a close paling of six feet high to protect them
from the encroachments of sheep and cattle, are
frequent; but cultivated fields outside the boun-
daries are rarely, if ever to be met with. This
almost savage order of things arises neither from
poverty nor niggardliness of disposition, but from the
knowledge that stations beyond the boundary may,
at a moment's notice, and without reason assigned,
be taken from the settlers by the colonial govern-
ment, who never allow one farthing of remuneration
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SHEEP-FARMING. 91
for improyements of any kind. I do not mean to
say that this arbitrary power has been ever im-
properly used, but the mere fact that such a power
is held by one individual is sufficient to deter the
settlers from investing money in buildings or other
improvements.
Sheep-farming, which now occupies the capital
and labour of so great a proportion of the Australian
community, was introduced into the colony about
the beginning of the present century, although not
generally adopted until a much more recent period.
A few sheep accidentally carried out from England,
and landed in the colony, having crossed with the
few hairy and coarse-woolled sheep of the Cape and
of India (which had been introduced merely for the
sake of their carcass), produced sheep vrith fleeces so
very fine, that it was immediately concluded that
there was something in the Australian climate pecu-
liarly favourable to the growth of wool. On this
assumption, some specimens of the Merino breed of
sheep were introduced, and distributed amongst the
colonists, and so fast have these sheep increased, and
so favourable is the Australian climate to the culture
of wool, that on the 1st of January, 1844, there were
5,055,337 good-wooUed sheep in the colony, and in
the year 1843 the export of wool amounted to
12,704,899 lbs. Now, supposing the free population
to have increased to 130,000 persons, and the price
of the 1843 wool to have realized only 1*. the pound,
the exports of wool alone that year would average
about 5£ to each person in the colony; whereas
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92 PROFITS OF
I believe that the whole annual exports, produce, and
manufactures of the United Kingdom, do not exceed
21 lOs. per head.
Various attempts have been made to show the
certain profits derivable from the investment of capital
in sheep-farming in New South Wales, but all such
calculations must be fallacious so long as the price of
wool fluctuates between 2^. 6d. and Is. per pound,
while the price of labour varies 400 per cent, within
the space of two years, and the settlers hold their
stations on uncertain tenures. Estimates, however,
of the progressive increase of sheep may be made
with great accuracy ; and it is speaking within
bounds to say, that the settler who commences sheep-
farming with 2,000 ewes will, on the fourth lamb-
ing, have 5,000 males and 3,000 females, or a total
of 8,000 sheep. This estimate only allows an annual
increase of eighty per cent., with which most settlers
would be dissatisfied ; it allows also as much as six
per cent, for annual losses, which is a per-ceatage
far more than sufficient to coyer all general casualties.
Settlers in most instances take only one lambing
annually firom their ewes, although two lambings are
sometimes taken; but this latter practice greatly
impairs the health and size of the sheep.
The tales which reached home of the immense
wealth amassed in sheep-farming in New South
Wales, though now generally believed to be traps
set to catch the unwary, were more founded upon
truth than late events would at the first glance lead
one to believe. Six years' colonial experience has
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SHEEP-FAKMING. 93
proved to me, that during he assignment system
sheep-farming was as certain and speedy a way of
realizing a fortune, as sheep-farming in 1841 was
an unprofitable investment of capital and labour.
In all properly conducted sheep establishments,
the complement of men never exceeds two to each
thousand sheep, and as the men employed in taking
care of sheep were, previously to 1841, assigned con-
victs, and did not cost the sheep-farmer one shilling
beyond their rations and clothing, and as all the
other duties connected with sheep establishments
were also performed by convicts, while the price of
wool was generally as high as 2s, the lb. it is not to be
wondered at that the sheep-farmers' account, during
the convict system, for wool alone, exhibits such
favourable results : —
1,000 fleeces of 2^ lbs. each sold at
2*. per lb £250
Clothing and rations for two
Government men at 15Z.
each . £30
Disbursements for shearing,
wool-packing, and washing
1,000 fleeces ..... 14
Assessment on 1,000 sheep,
carriage, commission, &c. 6
50
Income derived from 1,000 sheep . . £200
Any sales of fat wethers, or other sheep, were
additions to this income ; but as the prices of sheep.
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94 PROFITS OP
even during the convict labour^ were continually fluc-
tuating^ I can form no accurate opinion as to the
general results of such sales ; the minimum, how-
ever, may be taken with safety at 1/. per head*
The sudden stoppage of the assignment system in
1841 was very injurious to the colony, and took
place at a time most un&vourable to the settler,
for wool had fallen to its lowest, and free labour
was excessively scarce and dear. Shepherds then
demanded, and readily got, wages of 302. and 40Z.
per annum, with full rations (indeed so scarce had
labour become, that wages much beyond these were
frequently offered and refused), wool at the same time
fell to 1^. the pound ; and the position of the sheep-
farmers wore, consequently, a very different aspect
from what it assumed during the convict system.
The wool account in 1841 stood : —
1,000 fleeces of 2| lbs. each sold at
l^.perlb £125
Wages for two men at 35Z.
each £70
Ration for do. at 12Z. each . 24
Disbursements for shearing,
washing, & wool-packing
1,000 fleeces .... 14
Assessment on 1,000 sheep,
carriage of wool, commis-
sion, &c. &c. . . . . 6
114
Income from 1,000 sheep £110
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SHEEP-FARMING. 95
The stockholders were not, in 1841, aware of the
returns and value of the tallow and skins that re-
sulted from slaughtering and boiling down sheep;
added to which, purchasers of live stock were no
where to be met ; for a very general belief existed in
the colony that sheep-farming, as an investment of
capital, was a very losing concern. The butchers'
shambles have been filled with fat stock at prices
that frequently did not pay the expenses of trans-
mitting the sheep and cattle to Sydney. The set-
tler finding the market for the increase of his flocks
and herds thus closed, and dreading that labour
would become dearer, was, in 1841, as desirous of
curtailing the numbers of his live stock as formerly
he had been anxious to increase them, and, as the
only means for preventing the dreaded augmentation,
most flockmasters did not allow their ewes to in-
crease, while a lingering hope that wool would again
rise alone hindered them from destroying the flocks
that had formerly been such a source of wealth.
Wool, at the end of 1844, was still selling at low
prices in Sydney, and only brought a small frac-
tion more than 1*. the pound; but the price of
labour was much reduced, and the average rate of
wages did not exceed 15/. per annum, with fiiU
rations, for shepherds and hutkeepers ; consequently
the sheep-farmers' account, in 1844, for wool was
again looking up, and the wool, besides covering all
expenses, would return some interest on the original
outlay.
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96 PROFITS OF SHEEP-FARMING.
1,000 fleeces at 2^ lbs. each, say at
l5. perlb £125
Wages for two men at 15/.
each £30
Rations for ditto at 12/.
each 24
Disbursement for shearing,
&c 14
Assessment on 1,000
sheep, carriage of wool,
commission charges, &c. 6
74
Income in 1844 from 1,000 sheep . £51
Two years' experience has proved that the tallow
and skin of a good sheep will amount to 6s. Id. ;
therefore a fixed mininum standard has been given to
sheep, and the sheep-farmer never can again be
placed in a like position to that which he occupied in
1841, 1842, and the commencement of 1843; but it
is to be hoped that boiling down sheep for their
tallow will be seldom resorted to, and the stockholder
knows well that when he boils down a sheep, he kills
the hen that lays the golden egg.
The benefit that has arisen from the boiling down
of sheep and cattle has hitherto been great, as this
mode of disposing of the annual increase and fat
stock has obviated in a great measure the difficulty
arising from the disparity in the supply of labour
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SHEEP FARMING. 97
in comparison to what its demand would otherwise
have been. Indeed, had the boiling-down system
not been introduced, the supply of labour would
have been so disproportionate to the quantity re-
quired, and the wages consequently so high, that in
a few years there would either not have been a
solvent settler in the whole colony, or immense herds
of sheep and cattle would be running wild in the
bush.
Should a well organized system of emigration
be adopted, the colony will soon return to its former
position as a money-making country, and sheep-
farming can afford as well as most businesses, even
taking the wool at Is, the pound, to employ la-
bourers at wages of lOZ. and 12/., with full rations,
or without rations at 22/. per annum. At these rates
the sheep-farmer may derive a very fair income
from his flocks, and if wool should rise to 1*. 6d.
the pound, an event more than probable, the stock-
holder must be an improvident or a gambling specu-
lator if he does not realize a fortune, for while the
income that will be derived from his wool will be
considerable, the original capital invested in the
sheep will be increasing and multiplying itself with
the same rapidity that the sheep themselves do.
It is an extraordinary, and not very creditable fact,
that, small as the Australian community is, fifteen
hundred persons have gone through the insolvent
court within four years, whose debts amounted in
all to 3,000,000/1, on which the average dividend
F
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98 MONETARY EMBARBAS6MENT.
paid was not so much as l^* the pound. Now
this circumstance in an old and properly organized
country, whose resources were fully developed, would
be a strong argument against its internal wealth;
but I do not think it can be so applied with regard
to New South Wales, where there must have been
many circumstances and extraordinary influences
(not the least prominent of which, perhaps, were great
extravagances and speculation amounting to gam*
bling) that could have ruined in so short a time
men who bad amassed such immense fortunes as
sheep-farmers must have done during the convict
system, and among whoio^ if one is to credit all
that has been said, it was no uncommon saying, " we
are getting disgustingly rich."
One can easily understand how men, who bad
purchased sheep partly upon credit, a few months
previous to the cessation of the assignment system,
or even shortly after (for the baneful effects of that
stoppage were not generally diffused until many
months after it took place), were ruined. These men
paid 1/. and 1/. 5s. per head for their sheep, partly in
cash, but by far the greatest portion in long dated
bills, bearing ten and twelve per cent, interest. It
mattered little, then, how provident, economical;
and hard working they were, since it was impossible
that any other destiny than that of the insolvent
court could await them, for they had to pay thia
exorbitant interest on lai^e sums from a business
that, with the soundest management^ did not much
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H0RN£1> CATTLE. 99
more than clear its own expenses ; and when the bills
became due, all they had to meet them was an article
that had fallen since they purchased it 1,000 per
cent. Notwithstanding this, the settlers who pur-
chased their sheep with cash, never giving bills or
contracting debt, never entering into partnership
with an individual or in any joint-stock company,
had no fair reason for taking refuge in the insolvent
court, and such a result can alone be imputed to im-
providence, assuming that no great fatality, proceed-
ing from natural causes, visited their flocks.
Many settlers have realized great wealth from
horned cattle, and as they are managed at much less
expense, and increase, although not so fast as sheep,
very rapidly, there are many colonists who prefer
cattle to sheep establishments. Great attention has
been paid to the breeding of cattle ; and notwith-
standing that the present herds of Australia owe
their origin to a few stray cattle brought out in some
of the convict ships, numerous well-bred Durham,
Ayrshire, Suffolk, and Hereford bulls, that have
been imported during late years, have so greatly im-
proved the breed, that the Australian herds can now
almost bear comparison with the homed cattle of
England; and oxen three and four years old, not
stall or meadow fed, but fattening on the natural
herbage of the colony, average nearly eight hundred
weight. There are at present upwards of 1,000,000
of cattle in the colony, a great portion of which are of
the Durham breed, and of this million of cattle, now
running in the "bush" of Australia, there is scarcely
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100 8CHEBIES TO OBTAIN FUNDS.
a single one which is not branded with the mark
of its owner. The cattle proprietors take care to
mark their stock in such a way as to know them from
others.
The monetary embarrassment throughout the
colony obliged settlers to try all means for obtaining
fiinds, and, among other live stock, cattle of all
descriptions and ages glutted the meat market to
such an extent, that the prices obtained from the
butchers for the primest oxen were totally unremu-
nerating ; but the boiling down of live stock for
their tallow came, in 1843, very opportunely to the
relief of the cattle-holder, and now the tallow and
hide of a fat oxen varies in value, according to the
size of the beast, from 21. to 3/.
Salting beef was generally resorted to by the
colonists in 1842, and most of the principal stock-
holders in the colony gave it their attention; but,
unfortunately, the meat cured in that year has ac-
quired a very unfitvourable character in England.
Nevertheless, it is notorious in the South Seas that
Australian-cured meat, used by the colonial ship-
ping, is much superior to English salt meat ; and the
natural inference is, that while there can be no in-
feriority in the beef itself, there exists some pecu-
liarity, at present undiscovered, or not generally
known, in the ingredients required for salting meat
that is to pass through the torrid zone. When the
process of salting meat for exportation to the north-
em countries is well understood, fat oxen will realize
7/. per head, after paying all the expenses of saltingj
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HOBSE-STOCK. 101
shipping, commissions on sale, and other charges.
Under these circumstances, the grazier's position will
be second to none in the colony; for a herd of 1,000
cattle can be managed, even when wages are as high
as 20/. for 100/. per annum ; and such a herd will,
in good stations, return upwards of 100 fat oxen
annually.
The horse-stock of New South Wales is considered
not to be under 100,000, although the returns of last
year only gave 62,017 horses. A horse, similar to
one which in 1839 would have readily sold for
60/., at the close of 1844 would not realise 8/. The
panic which followed 1841 may be said to have given
the death-blow to horse-stock ; for, as most of the
colonists at that time needed money, the majority
hastened to the market with their property, and
among other stock, horses were offered for sale by
hundreds; the result was, that it became apparent
to all that the supply of horses far exceeded the
colonial demand, and that there was scarcely a settler
in the colony who was not more or less a breeder of
horses. Unlike sheep and cattle, no legitimate
market out of the colony has hitherto been found
for Australian horses ; and until one be discovered,
horse-stock will prove to be an encumbrance rather
than a profit to the settler. It has been said that
India offers a remunerating market for Australian
horse-stock, but there are at present so many con-
flicting opinions with regard to this statement, that
one is at a loss how to decide.
The original horse-stock of the colony was a cross
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102 ADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION.
between the South American and Arab horses ; but
the present stock is of the first order, an eiJtcellence
attributable to the influence of the climate, combined
with the almost lavish cost at which the purest blood
from some of the first racing stables in Engtatid has
been introduced. The attention of the stockholders,
however, has not been directed exclusively to horses
whose sires and dams have been celebrated on the
turf, for superior specimens of the hunter, roadster,
carriage, dray, and Clydesdale horses, which are
to be seen in many parts of the Colony, are evidences
of the importation of many different kinds of Eug*
lish stallions. The chief attribute of the Australian
horse is the immense and continuous work of which
he is capable, whether in the collar or saddle, upon
green food, and that, as every " bushman" can testify,
often of the most stunted growth, and in places
where the animal would take a week to fill him-
self.
Emigrants of capital now proceeding to New
South Wales have a great advantage over those who
arrived in the colony a few years ago, for, in 1839
and 1840, mixed flocks of sheep sold at 1/. Ss. per
head, cattle at 6/. 10^., while farms were scarcely to
be had for love or money ; whereas, at the close of
1844, mixed flocks of sheep averaged 58. per head,
and horned cattle 1/. 5^*, and very many farms, or
small estates, of rich soil, were in the market at ex-
tremely low figures. Farms of a thousand acres,
completely fenced in, and partly cultivated, with
comfortable brick cottages, stables, and all necessary
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ADYAKTAGES OF EMIGRATION. 103
oatbuildings (such as could not have been erected
for less than 800/.), are now to be readily purchased
for ten or twelve hundred pounds from colonists who
either are in embarrassed circumstances, or beheve
they can employ their c«^ital to better advantage
than in farming.
The persons best adapted for Australian settlers
are young men with 2,000/. and 3,000/. in their
pockets, who have sufficient moral courage to resist
all the temptations of a town, adhere firmly to the
less polished and rather monotonous routine of a
bush life, and are not too fastidious, but on emer-
gency could eat damper (a coarse dark bread) and
salt junk, using their fingers instead of knives or
forks, drink tea out of tin pots, and sleep in the open
air with saddles for their pillows, occasionally with-
out even a cloak for a covering. After landing, the
emigrant of capital ought to be excessively guarded
in his movements, and take no step without due
consideration. He should remember that he is in
a land of strangers, and allow no insinuating tongue
or interested giver of dinners, to induce him to em-
bark one shilling of his capital in any colonial busi-
ness, until he has gained much local experience.
The emigrant will find that he has plenty to learn,
with not a little to unlearn ; and he who spends some
months in acquiring colonial knowledge, will find
himself at the end of a few years in a very different
position from those who foolishly believed themselves
possessed of intuitive knowledge of colonial affairs,
and dashed headlong into them. It is not intended to
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^04 ADVANTAGES OP EMIGRATION.
imply that the difficulties of sheep-farming are great,
indeed they are comparatively trivial ; it being rather
the selection and management of a class of men of
whom new comers can know nothing, to which the
emigrant will be required to direct his attention.
Australia presents many inducements to families
having capital of about £8,000, — the heads of
which are men of education, possessed of strong
minds, and good common sense, but not having been
brought up to any profession or business, have no
likelihood of increasing their capital at home. I^
however, the head of the femily— no matter how well
educated and upright — ^be a man of weak or vacillat-
ing disposition, emigrating to Australia will only
have the effect of reducing his family to a worse
plight than they were in at home ; for, it is a fact
which will not admit of dispute, that to succeed in
the colony men must think and act for themselves,
and oftener listen with suspicion than credulity to
advice that has any reference to pounds, shillings,
and pence.
We will suppose a family, and there are many such,
existing upon 200?. or 300/. a year in England — sums
which they would consider good interest for a capital of
8,000?. Such a family would at home have many dif-
ficulties to contend with. They would be excluded by
their poverty from occupying the position in society to
which, perhaps, the head of the family, by birth, man-
ners, and education, was entitled. Now, if this family
emigrated to New South Wales, their position in society
would soon be reversed. They would be no longer
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ADVANTAGES OF EMIGRATION. 105
dependants on others for their social existence^ and
they would find that their 8,000/. judiciously managed
was quite sufficient for the foundation of a fortune.
The whole family could be landed for 280Z. in the
colony. 1000/. will purchase an improved farm, in
any of the respectable districts, with all the requi-
site buildings, 100 or more acres in cultivation,
a good garden and orchard, besides being stocked
with fifby head of homed cattle, and eight or ten
horses. From the farm alone, without any other
outlay, the family, however large, would obtain all
the necessaries, and some of the luxuries of life, and
if worked as a dairy farm, it would return interest on
the purchase-money. A sum of 2,000/., invested in
good mortgages at ten or twelve per cent., will return
the family as much as their whole income in England
amounted to, while the remainder of the 8,000/., judi-*
ciously expended in sheep or cattle, will, besides in-
creasing their annual income, eventually double and
triple the original capital. The position of such a
&mily would soon be changed for the better — their
style of living would gradually become more conform-
able to their increased income — a tutor residing in
the family would instruct in the classics the children
to whom in England the rudest education could
scarcely have been afforded. The revolution, how-
ever, would not end here ; for as in England the
head of the family had been, in the literal meaning
of the word, a useless member of society ; so in
Australia he would be beneficial to the British manu-
facturer and labourer in a twofold sense — he would
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106 ADVANTAGES OF EMIQAATION.
be both a producer and consumer. He would, more-
over, be occasionally the patron, and always the
supporter, of useful local associations — his opinion
«id advice as a man of sound sense and good edu-
cation would be referred to in all district, and per-
haps in most colonial afiGEurs.
The society of the colony is respectable, much
importance being attached to character, and d^faux
pai either in men or women being as little tolerated
in Australia as in the mother country. At the same
time, the refinements of literature, generally, among
Englidi gentlemen, and the more elegant accomplish-
ments of Englidi ladies, are not among the prominent
features of Australian society. Indeed a new comer
cannot fail to remark that the monopolizing subjects
of conversation are, colonial policy, sheep, cattle,
and agriculture; but however much this peculiarity
may annoy him at first, he will before long find his
thoughts and words imperceptibly following the
stream, if he, like most men in Australia, becomes
actually employed in some colonial occupaticm.
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yiCB-BEOAL CHBONOLOOT. 107
CHAPTER V.
GoTemment— Laws and Courts — Police — Provisions for Clergymen
— Education — Revenue and Expenditure of the Colony — District
Councils.
From the foundation of the colony until the present
time, there has not been less than nine different
governors in New South Wales. The vice-regal
chronology stands as follows :— 1st. Governor Phillip,
from January 1788 to December 1792; 2nd. Go-
vernor Hunter, from August 1795 to September
1800; 3rd. Governor King, from September 1800 to
August 1806; 4th. Governor Bligh; from August
1806 to January 1808 ; 5th. Governor Macquaire,
from January 1810 to December 1821 ; 6th, Go-
vernor Brisbane, from December 1821 to December
1825 ; 7th. Governor Darling, from December
1825 to October 1831 ; 8th. Governor Burke, from
December 1831 to December 1837 ; and last, the
present Governor, Sir George Gipps, who arrived
in the colony at the commencement of 1838.
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108 GOVEBNMENT.
When the colony was first established, the whole
executive powers were vested in the Governor, and
this order of things lasted until 1824, when the old
regime was superseded by a form of government
which consisted, first, of the Governor of the terri-
tory of New South Wales; second, an executive
council, consisting of the Governor, the Colonial
Secretary, the Colonial Treasurer, and the Bishop ;
third, ft legislative council, consisting of the members
of the executive council, with the addition of the
Chief Justice, the Attorney-General, the chief offi-
cer of the Customs, the Auditor-General, and seven
private gentlemen who were appointed by the crown,
and who were generally selected on account of their
experience in colonial afiairs. Under this form of
government, the Australian community had risen,
it is true, to a state of brilliant prosperity ; but it had
also fallen to a comparatively low ebb, — the colonial
revenue having in two years risen firom 324,080/.
to 653,027/. sterling, in the course of three years
dropped to 360,600/. sterling.
Some of the colonists, forgetful that their pros-
perity might, in some part, be attributed to the
good policy of their rulers, ascribed the adverse
change in their affairs to the short-sightedness of
the Colonial Government, and, in consequence, be-
came importunate in their petitions to the home
authorities for a representative legislature, as a
panacea for all their grievances. The petitions of
this part of the Australian community, it would
seem, were favourably entertained, for in 1843 the
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OOVERNBfENT. 109
form of goverameut was again changed^ and made
to consist, first, of the Governor ; second, an execu-
tive council similar to that of 1824; and third, a
legislative council, composed of six official members,
six nominees appointed by the Governor, and twenty-*
four elective members ; a speaker is chosen firom the
whole body.
Able and respectable as the representative council
may be, it is very probable that it would have been more
so had the elective boon been granted at a time when
the colony was more prosperous, and,. consequently,
when a greater number of colonists could have pru-
dently spared time for public duties ; any censures,
however, on the general conduct of the present
council would be unjust ; for, although scarcely two
years old, its legblative duties have been great, and
many of its members have unsparingly dedicated
their time and talents to the wellbeing of the colony.
The last two years have indeed been full of anxiety
for all connected with Australian politics, and to
none more so ^han the present governor, who has
encountered difficulties of a greater magnitude than
ever fell to the lot of any of his predecessors ; and
whatever difference of opinion may at present exist
with regard to some of Sir G. Gipps' acts, their
wisdom will be felt and acknowldged when the pre-
sent colonial embarassments have passed over, and
men see more clearly. In the meantime the colonists
would do well to bear in mind, that the panic which
has so lately visited Australia, has been caused by
means over which they themselves had certainly aa
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110 LAWS AND COURTS.
much^ if not more control than their rulers:— the
deterioration in the value of wool and oil can be
attributed to neither party; the abolition of the
assignment system was only adopted by Govenmient
at the earnest and repeated entreaties of the colo-
nists; while the introduction of capital, its more
than lavish diffusion, and then its sudden withdrawal^
were the acts of private individuals.
The statute laws of England are those which, for
the most part, are in force in the colony, and the
local enactments which formerly emanated from Par-
liament, or by the Governor and Council, are now, of
course, made by the Legislative Council, with the
sanction of the colonial executive. Considering the
embarrassed state of the colony, perhaps the most
important enactment made by the Legislative Council
is a new Insolvent Debtor's Act, which passed at the
commencement of 1844, and is now in operation.
This Act did away with imprisonment for debt, on the
grounds, first, that the imprisonment of the debtor
gave a vindictive creditor the power of depriving other
creditors of their right to benefit by the labour of
their debtor; and, secondly, that it drove the debtor,
however much he might wish to devote his energies
to the payment of his obligations, to seek refuge
in the insolvent court. It further enacted, that
wherever the assent of a majority of the creditors
could be obtained, a debtor might make a voluntary
assignment of his property to trustees appointed by
these consenting creditors, provided that such assign-
ment should be published three times in one of the
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LAWS AND COURTS. Ill
Sydney newspapers. The result of the latter clause
will haye^ no doubt, the eflTect of removing^ in a great
measure, the odium and demoralizing effect attend-
ing public exposure in the insolvent court; but
whether voluntary assignment will prevent the waste
of property, and other abuses, remains yet to be seen.
The execution of the laws devolves upon a su-
preme court, presided over by a chief justice and
two puisne judges. The powers of the supreme
court are very extensive ; it is, I believe, a court of
admiralty for criminal offences. From the supreme
court an appeal lies in all actions where the sum
exceeds 500/., first to the Governor, and finally to
the Queen in Council. Circuit courts, or courts of
assise, are held twice a year in Maitland, Bathurst,
and Berrima, and have powers as extensive as assize
courts in England. Courts of general and quarter
sessions, presided over by a chairman who is elected
by the territorid magistrates, have also the same
powers as those of England. Courts of requests in
the county of Cumberland for summarily deter-
mining claims not exceeding 30/., and in the assize
towns for claims not exceeding 10/., are established.
The decision of this court is final. A commissioner
appointed by the Crown presides at the court of
requests in Cumberland, and the respective stipen-
diary magistrates, with increased salaries, act as com-
missioners of requests in three assize towns.
Juries sit in civil and criminal cases. An Act
has lately passed the Legislative Council^ by which
juries, after six hours' deliberation, are empowered to
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112 POLICE.
divide, when a majority of two-thirds is sufficient to
return a verdict. There are benches of magistrates
in Sydney and in the principal towns of the colony,
* aided by constables and by a civil and military force.
Until lately, a stipendiary magistrate, who was obliged
always to be in attendance, presided at each bench
of magistrates, but an over economizing spirit has
done away with the office of stipendiary magistrate
at most of the benches throughout the colony, and
the consequence is, that now the magisterial duties
are performed less efficiently by settlers whose time for
the most part is too much occupied by private busi-
ness, to admit of their devoting sufficient attention to
the administration of justice.
The mounted police corps is composed of 100
soldiers, the elite of the regiments quartered in the
colony. Their duty is to apprehend bushrangers (a
sub-genus banditti). Of course, robberies, bui^la-
ries, and murders are committed in the colony, but
the original bushranger, mounted on his fleet steed,
and living in the fastnesses, is now an uncommon
sight; and although I spent the best part of five
years in travelling through the bush of New South
Wales, I never heard the bushranger's " stop," or the
click of his pistol. Five officers are attached to the
mounted police, and as the pay is good, the discipline
perhaps a little lax, and the uniform very splendid,
the half civil, half military appointment of mounted
police officer is considered a very enviable birth among
the subalterns quartered in the colony. This corps
has cost the colony on an average 18,000/. per annum
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MILITARY. 113
for the last six years^ and it is to be hoped, in these
economizing days, that the Governor and Legislative
Council have duly considered whether the colony gets
its pounds' worth, out of the mounted police.
There are at present two regiments in New South
Wales. The head -quarters for these regiments are
Sydney and Paramatta ; detachments of from twenty
to sixty rank and file, with subalterns in command
are distributed over the colony. Two regiments in
conjunction with the civil power are found quite
sufficient to enforce the laws. — Regiments quartered
in New South Wales do not receive any colonial pay.
The commissariat consists of a deputy commissa-
riat-general, two assistant deputies, and numerous
clerks; the accountant department consists of an
assistant commissary-general, and four or five subor-
dinates.
There are no militia or yeomanry corps in the
oolony ; on any case of emergency the settlers, how-
ever, would form a rather formidable body, being
well adapted for a yeomanry corps, and in those in-
stances where continued and hazardous pursuits after
escaped convicts have occurred, the settlers, who at
all times freely volunteer, have been I will not say
more efficient, but certainly quite as much so as the
mounted police. Many settlers are of opinion that a
protective corps raised from among themselves would
prove less expensive and more beneficial than those
now existing, both on account of their intimate know-
ledge of the bush, and the very moderate rate at which
they could supply themselves with horses.
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114 EDUCATION.
There is a great variety in the forms of religion,
and the ministers of most of the sects are provided
for by the colonial legislatore in the following man-
ner. The Episcopalian church receives annually
upwards of 14,000/.; the Roman Catholic church
receives 5,000/. ; the Presbyterian church, 3,500/. ;
and the Wealeyans about 1,400/.; besides which
sum there is 12,000/. granted annually for extraor-
dinary, demands, to meet which the government is
pledged under the church act, such as the building
of churches for all denominations, and. salaries of
churchmen who may arrive in the colony, with the
permission of the secretary of state* The clergymen,
in addition to their government pay, receive hand-
some subscriptions from their congregations, and
their outward ^pearance certainly does not proclaim
them as belonging to Pharaoh's lean kine. They
are, perhaps more frequently than any other class of
persons in the colony, to be seen either in their car-*
riages, or mounted on handsome and well groomed
horses.
The Legislative Council voted last year 14,030/* for
^ucational purposes. Of this sum there was more
than 6,000/* allotted to two male and female orphan
schools for destitute Protestant and Roman Catholic
children. Othe^ Church of England schools, con-
ducted in accordance with specific regulations, re-
ceived about 3,600/., and the remaining 4,000/. was
distributed among Roman Catholic, Presbyterian,
and Wesleyan schools, which were conducted ac-
cording to the Colonial Government regulations.
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EDUCATION. 115
A committee of the Legislative Council, which
was appointed in Jane, 1844, to inquire into the
system of colonial education, reported that out of
25,076 children, between the ages of four and four-
teen, only 7,642 received instruction in public
schools, and 4,865 in private seminaries. The com-
mittee attributed thfe fact of so great a number as
13,000 children living in the colony uneducated, to
the strictly denominational system of the public
schools, and pronounced that the sum which the
colony paid was disproportionately greater to the
number educated. The committee went on to re-
commend the Irish system of national education;
in other words, a system which would give under
one roof a combined literary education to the
lower classes of the community, and a separate reli-
gious education, to those of different persuasions.
In pursuance of the committee's recommendation, it
was moved in the Legislative Council, that the sys-
tem so recommended should supersede the denomi-
national system hitherto in use in the colony. About
a week previous to ray leaving New South Wales,
the original motion gave place to an amendment,
which, so far as I understood it, while it had for its
object a combined literary education for children of
all creeds, excluded religious instruction and use of
the Bible in the school-houses, setting apart one or
two days in the week for the religious instruction of
the children, either at home or elsewhere, as their
parents thought proper. The amendment, which
was not to interfere with any of the then existing
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116 REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.
schools, was carried bj a majority of one ; but it had
not^ preyiously to mj departure^ receiyed the ap-
proval of the executive.
The present revenue and expenditure of the co-
lony will be best understood by an extract from the
Grovemor's message of 18th July, 1844^ to the Le-
gislative Council. Thus — ♦
*• The ordinary revenue of the co-
lony amounted, during the year
1843, to . . . £294,311 14 9
** The Crown revenue (exclusive of
the sums derived from the sale of
lands) amounted to . . 45,822 18
£340,134 12 9
Again — ««■=■«==
"The total expenditure of 1843,
exclusive of immigration and
aborigines having been . £325,193 6
" Or adding the aborigines . 4,841 14 2
£330,035 2
" And as the revenue was . 340,134 12
*' It follows that the whole revenue
(exclusive of the land fund) ex-
ceeded the whole expenditure,
exclusive of immigration, by the
sum of . . . £10,099 12 7
^Coming now to the land fund
and immigration, it appears that
the land fund (by which is meant
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REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. 117
the money derived from the sale
of land) amounted to . . £10,756 II 6
^^ And the charges of immigration
amounted to . . • 13,854 15
" So that the expenses of immigra-
tion ex-ceeded the whole land
fund by . . . 3,098 6 6
" And this is exclusive altogether of the recent im-
migration, the whole of the expense of which is
chargeable on the present year, 1844, as the Herald
(the first of the recent emigrant ships) arrived only
on the 9th January last."
The message, after occupying some space, by en-*
tering into the more minute details of the revenue
and expenditure of 1843, passes at once to the esti-
mates of 1845.
"The amount of the estimates
submitted to the Council is . £185,725 2
"To which, if the amount of
schedules A, B, and C is ap-
pended to the 5th and 6th Vict.
c. 76, be added . 81,600
"The gross amount of estimated
expenditure will be . . £266,875 2
" And I have reason to hope that the ordinary
revenue of the colony will not fall short of the sum."
" In the year 1843, the ordinary revenue produced
294,3 lU 14*. 9d. sterling; but it was only in thfe
second half of that year that the recent decline in
that revenue began to manifest itself, and some
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118 REVENUE AND EXPBNBITURS. ^
items, such as those of tolls on roads and ferries,
which in 1843 were carried to the general account,
will in 1845 be transferred to the District Council.
The ways and means, as prepared by the Auditor-
General, show an expected revenue of 290,280/.
" No contribution can, I fear, be expected from
the crown revenue in aid of the ordinary revenue
during the year 1845, as not only is the whole ex-
pense of the survey department now thrown upon
the Crown revenue, but it is further burthened with
a debt on account of immigration, which will proba-'
bly amount to from 80,000/. to 100,000/. sterling by
the end of the present year." Again :
" The estimates of the police are framed upon the
principle laid down in the 47 th clause of the Aci
for the government of New South Wales, nsunely,
that one-half of the expense of nuiintaining the
police shall be defrayed out of the general fundaof
the colony, the other half by local assessments."
The finance message concludes with — "I also
submit to the consideration of the Council, a supple-
mentary estimate for the service of the present year,
amounting to 12,845/. Is. sterling. I have reason,
however, to hope that a considerable portion of this
estimate will be covered by savings on the estimates
already voted for 1844."
Although this is the only allusion in the Governor's
message to the expenditure of 1844, it is to be in-
ferred that the abstract of the revenue and expendi-
ture of 1844, will, when it does appear, show a
balance in favour of the former of that part of the
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REVSNUB AND EXPENDITtRE. 119
abstract \vhich does not embrace the Crown land
sales, and the applications of the fands derived there-
from is excepted.
The revenue derived from the sale of Crown
lands (amounting in nine years to upwards of
1,000,0001), is the fund that of late years has been
set apart for emigration purposes. This fund has
now, exclusive of the charges of the survey depart-
ment, amounting to about 16,0007. per annum, an
incubus of at least 100,000/. of debt to pay off; and
inconsiderable as these charges and debts might ap-
pear in 1840, when the revenue derived from Crowii
land sales exceeded 300,000/., they are formidable
charges on a revenue of 11,000/. How is the Crovna
land to relieve itself of this debt?— How is future
emigration to be carried (Hi?— are questions easier
asked than answered^
That the estimates for 1845 are so much below the
expenditure of 1843 is attributable in some de^ee
to the recent curtailment of salaries, and abolition of
offices; but it is mainly referable to the fact, that the
items of tolls, roads, ferries, and one-half of the ex-
pense of maintaining the police, which, in 1843,
were all carried to the general account, are in 1845
to be defrayed by local assessment.
District councils for the purpose of carrying this
new order of things into effect have been established ;
and although some of the colonists have considered
that the benefits to be derived from local assessments
will not, in these cashless times, be commensurate
with the expenses that must attend the machinery
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120 STATISTICAL RETURNS.
of District Councils^ yet the colonists must be aware
that the general taxation will decrease, for the Go-
vernment will be relieved of a very considerable item
in its expenditure, while the colony will be able to
regulate their improvements and consequent taxation
in a manner proportionate to their capabilities.
Should the privileges, which have been lately
granted to New South Wales prove (which there is
no good reason to suppose will be the case) to have
been premature, the colonists cannot shut their eyes
to the fact, that these have only been conceded to
them at their own repeated solicitations.
The statistical returns, which were published in
June, 1844, and which comprise a period of nine
years from 1834 to 1843, are the best criterion of the
present position of Australia. The returns of live
stock do not, within a considerable number, repre-
sent the actual stock in the colony, chiefly on
account of the very scattered localities of the stock*
holders, and the consequent difficulty of obtaining at
one time the precise returns from each. The returns
of horse-stock is generally allowed to be very fiur
below the number of horses in the colony.
Digitized
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APPENDIX.
STATISTICAL BETTJBNS OF NEW SOUTH WALES,
Fr(/m the Printed Papers of the LegieUxtive CoundL
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EXPORT OF OIL.
Return of the Quantity and Value of Oil, &c. Ex-
ported from the Colony of New South Wales, from the
year 1834 to 1843 inclusive.
Ybab.
Sperm
Whale.
Black
Whale.
Whalebone.
Sealskins.
Value, as
entered in
the return
of Exports.
Tuns.
Tuns.
Tons.
Cwt.
No.
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
2,760
2,898
1,682
2,559
1,891
1,578
1,854
1,545
957
1,115
975
1,159
1,149
1,565
3,055
1,229
4,297
1,018
1,171
900
43
112
79
77
174
134
250
84
60
22
15
• •
• •
8
• •
14
• •
13
5
8
890
641
386
107
3 cases
7 cases
474
41
162
157,334/.
180,349
140,220
183,122
197,644
172,315
224,144
127,470
77,012
72,877
EXPORT OF TIMBER.
Return of the Quantity and Value of Timber Exported
from the Colony of New South Wales, from the year
1834 to 1843 inclusive.
Blue Gum, Pine
Value as
Ybab.
Cedar.
and other Timbei
', Treenails.
entered in
Quantity.
Quantity.
Numb.
the return
of Exports.
1834
899,4921
30,065 ]
212,467
£7,91
1835
907,921
145,628 1
f 3,778 ) 1
! 178,969
10,^9
'
1836
1,409,467
< feet and >h
i (106 logs J 1
35,094
14,611
1837
116,828!
3 18,828 i
' 62,989
14,463
1838
699,066,
i 9,000 J
73,450
6,382
1839
729,00 if
1 c 823 deals )
' ( 15 loffs !
40,588
8,815
1840
1,250,786
151,500 ]
4,350
20,971
1841
513,139
1,000 1
26,890
7,004
1842
522,882
27,404 U
C 10,020) 1
1 30 logs f]
55,644
5,800
1843 944,121
155,294
9,813
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VESSELS REGISTERED.
Return of the Number of Vessels Built and Registered
in the Colony of New South Wales, (including the District
of Port Phillip,) from the year 1834 to 1843 inclusive.
Year.
Vessels Built.
Vessels Registered.
Number.
Tons.
Number.
Tons.
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
9
7
9
17
20
12
18
35
26
47
376
303
301
760
808
773
1,207
2,074
1,357
1,433
19
21
39
36
41
79
98
110
89
92
1,852
2,267
4,560
3,602
6,229
10,862
12,426
11,250
9,948
7,022
AUCTION DUTY.
Return of the Amount of Auction Duty, at 1^ per
cent., paid into the Colonial Treasury, and of the
Amount of Sales, subject to the said Duty, from the
year 1834 to 1843 inclusive.
Year.
Amount of Duty.
Amount of Sales.
£.
8. d.
£.
8. d.
1834
2,327
6 10
155,156
2 2i
1835
3,135
16 2
209,053
17 9i
1836
4,697
11 5
313,171
7 9i
1837
4,820
3 11
321,346
7 9J
18 lOA
1838
6,137
10 1
409,166
1839
7,700
16 5
513,388
1 li
1840
18,701
2 10
1,246,742
15 6i
1841
14,455
9 I
963,696
18 lOi
1842
10,291
6 8
686,088
17 9i
1843
Totals
6,818
9 6
454,565
79,085
12 11
5,272,376
7 9i
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134
LAND SALES.
Return of the Amounts received from the Sale of
Crown Lands in the Colony of New South Wales
(including the District of Port Phillip), from the year
1834 to 1843 inclusive.
Ybab.
Amount.
£
9,
d.
1834
41,844
9
1
1835
80,784
14
6
1836
126,458
16
1837
120,427
5
1838
116,324
18
11
1839*
152,962
16
4
1840
316,626
7
5
1841t
90,387
16
10
18421
14,574
10
4
1843§
11,297
3
9
1,071,688
13
7
Note. — In the year 1831, Lord Ripon's regulations for the abo-
lition of free grants, and the sale by auction of all Crown lands,
were first promulgated in the colony.
* 1839. — In this year, the minimum price was raised from bs, to
12». an acre, but did not extend to lands previously advertised at the
former rate, of which there was a very large quantity at the time.
1 1841.— In this year, the system of sale at a fixed price of 1/. per
acre was introduced into the district of Port Phillip.
X 1842. — In this year, the system of sale by auction was resumed
throughout the colony, at a minimum upset price of 12«. per acre for
country lands, with liberty to select portions not bid for at the upset
price.
$ 1843. — In this year, the minimum price was raised to IZ. per
acre, by the Act of the Imperial Parliament, 5th and 6th Victoria,
cap. 36, with liberty to select at the upset price, country portions
put up to auction and not bid for, on which the deposit had been
forfeited.
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IMPORT OF GRAIN.
Return of the Quantity and Value of Grain, &c., Imported into the
Colony of New South Wales (including the District of Port Phillip),
from 1834 to 1843 inclusive.
Ybab.
Wheat.
Maize.
Barley,
Oats, and
Pease.
Flour and
Bread.
Rice.
Pota-
toes.
Total Value
as entered
in Re-
turns of
Imports.
Bushels.
Bushels.
Bushels.
Pounds.
Pounds.
Tons.
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
15,568
122,908
263,956
114,464
79,328
171.207
290,843
239,224
163,224
395,3''4
"896
8,180
3,395
6,040
30,862
19.185
12,773
1,120
583
6,818
12,031
27,567
7,034
58,927
64,093
63,3a3
41,610
37,798
61,361
14 J
407,680
1,139,551
474,358
176,030
728,346
1,414,747
6,849,896
3,603,076
2,260,046
1,678,208
408
520
1,304
545
1,167
1,189
1,723
480
1,401
547
£15,850
72,920
146,149
61,006
64,313
285,110
217,063
201,632
113,070
112,387
IMPORT OF LIVE STOCK.
Return of Live Stock Imported into the Colony of New South
Wales (including the District of Port Phillip), from 1834 to
1843 mclusive.
Year.
Description of Stock.
Horses.
Horses,
Mules, and
Asses.
Homed
Cattle.
Sheep.
Sheep and
Hogs.
Number.
Number.
Number.
Number.
Number.
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
6
11
8
92
185
652
1,008
863
113
31
12"
""4
97
74
135
244
156
89
28
'55,208
9,822
17,567
19,958
530
638
609
62
137
449
307
192
359
252
50 Hogs
65 ditto
4 ditto
N.B. — The Sheep have principally been imported from Van
Diemen's Land to the District of Port Phillip.— The Horses
have chiefly come from South America.
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136
EXPORTS OF WOOL AND TALLOW.
EXPORT OF WOOL.
Return of the Quantity and Value of Wool Exported
from the Colony of New South Wales (including the
District of Port Phillip), from the year 1834 to 1843
inclusive.
Value as
Ybab.
Quantity.
entered in the
Return of
Exports.
lb.
£.
1834
2,246,933
213,628
1835
3,893,927
299,587
1836
3,693,241
369,324
1837
4,448,796
332,166
1838
5,749,376
405,977
1839
7,213,584
442,504
1840
8,610,775
566,112
1841
8,390,540
517,537
1842
9,428,036
595,175
1843
12,704,899
685,647
EXPORT OF TALLOW.
Return of the Quantity and Value of Tallow Ex-
ported from the Colony of New South Wales, during
the year 1843.
Quantity.
Value as entered
in the Return of
Exports.
Cwt. qrs. lb.
5,680 2 36
£.
9,639
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1.
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THE ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. SULPHUR,
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CAPTAIN SIR EDWARD BELCHER, R.N., C.B., F.R.G.S., &c.
Edited and Superintended by RICHARD BRINSLEY HINDS, Esq.,
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The extensive and protracted Voyage of Her Majesty's Ship " Sulphur," having been produc-
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DURING XaS YEARS 1832 to 1836.
Edited and superintended by CHARLES DARWIN, Esq., MA. F.R.S. Sec. G.S.
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THE LIFE AND COLLECTED
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FORXIOir A880CIATX OF TBB IXSTITUTS OF F&AHCB, &C.
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THE BECTOBT OF VALEHEAD;
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By the Rer. ROBERT WILSON EVANS, B.D.,
Vicar of Heversham.
'* Universally and cordially do we recommend this delightful volume. We believe no
person could read this work and not be the better for its pious and touching lessons. It
is a page taken from the book of life, and eloquent with all the instruction of an excellent
pattern: it is a commentary on the affectionate warning, 'Remember thy Creator in the
days of thy youth.' We have not for some time seen a work we could so deservedly
praise, or so conscientiously recommend." — Literiry Gazette,
The Second Edition, enlarged. Foolscap 8vo., Price 68. cloth.
THE EELIGIOUS HISTOET OF MAN,
In which Religion and Superstition are traced from their source.
By D. MORISON.
How much the contents of this volume call for the careful investigation of every one
n search of Truth, will appear from the following opinions selected frt>m many.
''The intention of this book is not less admirable than the manner in which it is
written. It is most instructive, and the tone of its contents is in the highest degree pious,
without the least tinge of purilanism. The information it gives on the most difficult points
of biblical reading render it a valuable book to aU who desire true knowledge." — Age.
"Curious, industrious, and learned, and well worthy the attention of the public."
Literary Gazette.
"The plan of this book was both extensive and important — embracing an inquiry into
the nature of Revelation, and its influence on the opinions and customs of mankind ;"
BUT "the writer uses Scripture as an interpreter," and "sticks to the literal text of the
six days." — Spectator.
Just published, fcap. 8yo. with an Illuslration, price is.4>dt cloth.
SCHISM AND EEPENTANCE;
A SUBJECT IN SEASON.
By JOSEPH FEARN,
Author of "Belief and Unbelief, a tale for the Sceptical."
Demy 8vo., Price 7s. cloth.
PULPIT EECOLLECTIONS.
MisceOaneoas Sermons preached in the Parish Church of Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.
By the Rev. Sir WILUAM DUNBAR, Bart., S.C.L.
Late Curate of the above Parish.
"The writer shows ns what are the credentials of a Christian Ministry, by such zealous
and single-minded efforts as these, to save souls from death, far more convincingly than
he would have done by the most elaborate efforts to demonstrate an apostolical succession.
The sermons are practical as well as experimental in their tendencies, and extremely
edifying."—- Watchman.
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THE CHBISTIAN'S SUKDAY COMPANION;
Being Reflections in Prose and Verse on the CoUect, Epistle and Gospel, and Proper
Lessons for each Sunday; with a view to their immediate connection.
By Mrs. J. A. SARGAT9T.
''We cordially recommend this volume as an acceptable present to be made to the
heads of families, and also an admirable school book to be read on Sunday morning to
scholars before proceeding to the Temple of God."— Church and State Gazbttb.
** The whole production is eminently fitted to elevate the tone of religious feeling, to
strengthen in the minds not only of the rising generation, but also of the older friends to
our venerable ecclesiastical institution, sentiments of firm and fervent attachment to the
pure faith and reformed worship established in this Protestant country, and for these
reasons especially we recommend it to the perusal of our readers." — Norfolk Chron.
Sixth Edition, Royal 18mo., Price 2s. 6d., handsomely bound in cloth.
LETTEES FEOM A MOTHEE TO HEE DAUGHTEE,
AT, OR GOING TO SCHOOL.
Pointing out the duties towards her Maker, her Governess, her schoolfellows, and
herself.
By Mrs. J. A. SARGANT.
In 1 Volume Post 8vo., Price 8s. 6d., neatly bound in doth.
A HISTOET OF THE CHUECH OF CHBIST,
IN A COURSE OF LECTURES.
By the Ret. CHARLES MACKENZIE, A.M.,
Vicar of St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, and Head Master of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School,
St. Olave's, Southwark.
" Although the author is able and earnest, he is not bigoted or intolerant." — Lit. Gaz.
** It is but an octavo, yet within its conveniently compendious pages it contains a re-
view carefully taken of the progress of the Church of Christ, through all the perils of
persecution, dissent, and heresy, by which it has been tried as in a furnace, up to its con*
firmed establishment in this country at the epoch of 1688." — Herald.
In One Vol. Svo., Price 7s. neatly Bound.
THE LIFE-BOOK OF A LABOUEEE.
PRACTICAL LESSONS FOR INSTRUCTION AND GUIDANCE.
By a WORKING CLERGYfifAN.
Author of the <<Bbhop's Daughter," &c. drc.
<< We never in all oar experience met with a more interesting work, and one breathing
more fully and firmly the very essence of Christian philanthropy and national patriotism,
and that too in the most simple and unambitious language, as if the writer were not aware
of his power of influencing all the better feelings of the human heart." — ^Utbrart
Chroniclb.
<<This volume remfaids us forcibly of that most delightfiil of all biographies, 'The
Doctor,' to which indeed it is little if at all inferior." — Britanhia.
"It is the pious offering of one who may be deemed a proper follower fai the footsteps
of that good man, Legh Richmond." — Argus.
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A BOOK FOR THE BEREAVED, AND CONSOLATION FOR THE
MOURNER.
In one thick voL 8vo., price 15s. bound.
MOETAL LIFE ;
AND THE STATE OP THE SOUL AFTER DEATH ;
CONFORMABLE TO DIVINE REVELATION.
By ALEXANDER COPLAND, Esq.
Author of " The Existence of Other Worlds," &c.
** The work will afford in perusal, to all sorrowing relations, the consolation and diver-
sion of mind of the most congenial kind. It neither leads the thoughts to dwell painfully
on one idea — that of loss — nor does it altogether withdraw the mind from its contempla-
tion : an effort still more painful. The study of a work like this, on the contrary, while it
gradually weans grief from its melancholy occupation, supplies it with the sweetest and
most dieerful of all balm — the happy certainty <^ re-union, not after the lapse of vast ages
of time, but of the Instant term of mortal existence." — ^Theological Review.
THE CHAPEL, THE CHURCH, AND THE MEETING-HOUSE.
Recently published in Foolscap 8vo., Price 6s. Bound.
THE CHUECH AND DISSENT, ~
Considered in their practical influence on Individuals, Society, the Nation, and Religion.
By EDWARD OSLER, Esq.
<<It would be impossible to find, in the whole range of our literature, a work so admira-
bly suited to the present times as this invaluable little volume. The searching test to
which the respective systems have been submitted is so complete and convincing, that the
work ought to be studied by every Dissenter and Churchman in the Kingdom, particularly
at the present religioos crisis."— Christian Review.
By the same Author,
In 1 Vol. Royal 8vo., Price 4s. doth boards.
CHUECH AND KING.
COMPRISINO
L THE CHURCH AND DISSENT, CONSIDERED IN THEIR PRACTICAL INFLU-
ENCE, shewing the Connexion of Constitutional Honarcfay with the Church ; and
the Identity of the Voluntary Principle with Democracy.
U. THE CHURCH ESTABUSHED ON THE BIBLE; or, the Doctrines and Discipline
of the Church shewn in the Order and Connexion of the Yearly Services appointed
from the Scriptures.
UI. THE CATECHISM EXPLAINED AND ILLUSTRATED. In Connexion with these
appointed Services.
IV. PSALMS AND HYMNS ON THE SERVICES AND RITES OF THE CHURCH.
Just published, price 4s., the Sixth Edition of
THE AUTOBIOGEAPHT OF A DISSENTING MINISTEE.
** Our own observation has shown us the truth of the statement put forth in this well-
written exposure of the tyranny to which the greater portion of Dissenting Ministers are
compelled to submit, and the evils which the destruction of the Established Church would
bring upon religion." — Court Jodrnal.
** We warmly recommend this most excellent work to public notice." — ^British Mag.
<<Tbis volume is one which strikes us as being likely to make a considerable stir in the
religiou^ high-church, and dissenting world." — Literary Gazette.
** Thehr mode of edoeation at the IMatenting Colleges, as they are pompously styled, is
admirably shown up." — Edinburgh Evening Post.
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PHILOSOPHY AND EELIGION,
CONSIDERED IN THEIR MUTUAL BEARINGS.;
By the Rev. WILLIAM BROWN GALLOWAY, MX
Also recently Published. By the same Author,
In fcap. 8vo., Price 5s. cloth.
THE TOW OF THE GILEADITE:
A LYRIC NARRATIVE.
In 1 thick Vol., Demy 8vo., Price 10s. 6d. neatly bound in doth*
SCEIPIUEAL STUDIES:
COMPRISING
THE CREATION — THE CHRISTIAN SCHEME — THE INNER SENSE.
By the Rev. WILLIAM HILL TUCKER, M.A., Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.
• " This is not a work for ordinary readers. The author thinks for himself; and so writes
that his readers must think too, or they will not be able to understand him. — To the-
sacred volume, as a revelation from God, he pays uniform and entire deference — and the
thoughtful and prayerful reader will soon find that he has not the thinkings of a common-
place mind before him." — ^Methodist Magazine.
Second Edition, in 1 Vol. 12mo., Price, is. 6d. doth.
SIX MONTHS OF
A NEWFOUNDLAND mSSIONAET'S JOUENAL.
By the Venerable Archdeacon WIX.
"This is one of the most interesting and affectmg volumes we have ever read."
Christian Rehembbancer.
"We most earnestly recommend this Journal to general notice; it is full of interest."
Bbitish Magazine.
SOCIAL EYILS AND THEIE EEMEDT:
A SERIES OF NARRATIVES.
By the Rev. C. B. TAYLER, MA.
The First Number, entitled "THE MECHANIC," was pronounced to be "One of the
most useful and interesting publications that had issued from the press."
The following are the Contents of the different Numbers^ Price 1*. 6rf. each.
YI. LIVE AND LET LIVE; OR, THE
MANCHESTER WEAVERS.
VU. THE SOLDIER.
Vm. THE LEASmE FARM.
n. THE LADY AND THE LADrS MAID.
lU. THE PASTOR OF DRONFELLS.
IV. THE LABOURER AND HIS WIFE.
V. THE COUNTRY TOWN.
Every two consecutive Numbers form a Volume, which may be procured, neatly bound.
Price 4s. each.
"The design of Mr. Tayler is praiseworthy ; his object being to counteract, by a series
of tales illustrative of the power and necessity of religion in the daily and hourly concerns
of life, <the confusion of error with truth in Miss Mabtinbau's Entebtainino
Stobies.' "— Chbistian Rbmembbancbb.
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Author op ** May you Likb it," &c. &c.
1.
EECOBDS OF A GOOD MAN^S LIFE.
SeTenlh Edition, in 1 Volume small 8vo., Price 7s. neatly bound in cloth.
"We most earnestly recommend this work to the perusal of all those who desire
instruction blended with amusement. A spirit of true piety breathes through every page ;
and whilst the innocent recreation of the reader is amply consulted, his motives to virtue
•and morality receive an additional stimulus."— Monthlt Rutibw.
MONTAGUE; OB, IS THIS BELIGION?
A PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF THE WORLD.
New Edition, in Foolscap 8vo., Dlustrated, Price 6s. cloth, and 9s. morocco extra.
<<To christian parents we recommend the work, as admirably adapted to remind them
of their important duties, and their awful responsibility; and to our young readers, as
affording them much excellent advice and example, and displaying in the most lively
colours the high rewards of filial obedience."--GHRi8TiAN Monitor.
A VOLUME OF SEBMONS,
ON THE DOCTRINES AND DUTIES OF CHRISTIANITY.
Second Edition, Demy 12mo., Price 5s. boards.
"Well meriting a high rank among the pious labours of the ministry, is this simple
but admirable volume ; directed to instruct and improve even the most ignorant ; while it
reflects lustre on the Christian motives of its amiable author, it at the same time does
honour to his talents."^LiT£RART Gjlzbttb.
LEGENDS AND EECOEDS, CHIEFLY HISTOEICAL.
Contents: ^Lucy — Lorenzo; or, a Vision of Conscience — The Lady Lisle — Ful-
gentius and Meta— Anne of Qeves; or, Katharine Howard— George the Third— The Lady
Uussell— Guyon of Marseilles— The Earl of Strafford— Donna Francesca— Joan of Kent —
The Lady Anne Carr— The Son and Heir— Leonora.
In post Svo., beautifully Illustrated, Price 10s. 6d. eleganUy bound.
6.
THE CHILD OF THE CHUECH OF ENGLAND.
Price 2s. neady half-bound.
" These are truly Christian Parents' Books, and happy would it be for the rising gene-
ration if their instructors and tutors would put these admirable works of Mr. Tayler into
the hands of the young, while their tender minds are yet open to receive the good im-
pressions which they are so calculated to convey." — Christian Monitor.
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BOOKS FOR THE USE OF THE BLIND,
Printed with a very distinct Raised Roman Letter^ adapted to their touch,
THE HOLY BIBLE, in 15 vols. 4lo. Bound £8
•/ Any Volume separately : —
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Vol. 1, Genesis 10
— % Exodus and Leviticus .... 13
— 3, Numbers 9
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— 5, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth 10
— 6, Samuel 11
— 7, Kings 11
— 8, Chronicles 11
Vol. 9, Job, Ezra, and Nehemiah . . 9
— 10, Psalms 13
— 11, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song
of Solomon, and Esther . . 8 6
— 12, Isaiah 10 6
— 13, Jeremiah and Lamentations .110
— 14, Ezekiel 10
— 15, Daniel, to the end 11
THE FOUR GOSPELS— Matthew and Luke, 5s. 6d. each; John 45. 6d.; Mark 48.
separatelv*
THE CHURCH of ENGLAND CATECHISM 10
CHURCH of SCOTLAND SHORTER CATECHISM 2 6
SELECTIONS from EMINENT AUTHORS 16
SELECTIONS of SACRED POETRY, with Tunes 2
ARITHMETICAL BOARDS 10 6
MAP of ENGLAND and WALES 2
RUTH and JAMES 2 6
REPORT and STATEMENT of EDUCATION 2
SPECIMENS of PRINTING TYPE 2 6
FIRST BOOK of LESSONS 10
SECOND BOOK of LESSONS 2
A SELECTION of JESOFS FABLES, with Woodcuts 2
LESSONS on RELIGION and PRAYER 16
LESSONS on NATURAL RELIGION 2
THE ACTS of the APOSTLES 5 6
THE EPISTLES to the EPHESUNS and GALATUNS 3
THE NEW TESTAMENT, complete, 4 vols, bound 2
THE PSALMS and PARAPHRASES, 2 vols. 16
THE MORNING and EVENING SERVICES 2 6
THE HISTORY of the BIBLE 2
MUSICAL CATECHISM, with Tunes 3 6
ENGUSH GRAMMAR 5
TOD'S LECTURES, vols. 1 and 2, each 2 6
DESCRIPTION of LONDON by CHAMBERS 3
MEDITATIONS on the SACRAMENT 4
The Blind may now be taught to read at School, or even by their own friends at home.
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A NEW
SPELLING-BOOI OF THE ENGHSH LANGUAGE;
CONTAINING
All the Monosyllables ; a copious selection of Polysyllables, carefully arranged and accented ;
Progressive Lessons, chiefly from the Holy Scripture; a list of words of various Meanings;
a short Bible Catechism ; Questions on Scripture History ; and School Prayers.
By J. S. MOORE, Master of the Brewers' Company's School.
A BOOK FOR THE COUNTING-HOUSE AND PRIVATE DESK.
Recently published in demy 12mo., Price 5s. bound in doth.
AEITHMETIC UNVEILED:
Being a Series of Tables and Rules, whereby most of the calculations in business may
be either mentally performed, or so abridged as to save half the time usually employed.
To which are annexed a Multiplication Table extended to 200 tinies 200, and Tables of
Interest on an improved plan. The whole adapted to the use of both the first merchant
and the most humble trader.
By JAMES McDOWALL^ Accountant. |
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THE ENGLISH MASTEE;
OR, STUDENT'S GUIDE TO REASONING AND COMPOSITION:
Exhibiting an Analytical View of the Eng^h Language, of the Human Mind, and of the
Principles of fine Writing.
By WILLIAM BANKS, Private Teacher of G>mposition, Intellectual Philosophy, &c.
**We have examined with care and pleasure this valuable treatise of Mr. Banks, and
strenuously recommend the volume as one of all others most fit to put into the hands of
every En^ish student."— Wbekly Rethsw.
Second Edition, demy 12mo., Price 3s. bouad.
A SYSTEM OF AEITHMETIG,
With the Principles of Logarithms. Compiled for Merchant Taylors' School.
By RICHARD FREDERICK CLARKE, Teacher.
*<The great object attained in this excellent work is a most judicious abridgment of the
labour of teaching and learning every branch of Arithmetic, by rendering the Rules and
Explanations so very simple and intelligible, that the study becomes a pleasure, instead of
a task, to the youthful pupil."
24mo. 28. cloth boards.
THE GEAMMAEIAN;
OR, THE ENGLISH WRITER AND SPEAKER'S ASSISTANT:
COMPRISING
Made easy to Foreigners, with instances of their Misuse on the part of the Natives of Eng^d.
ALSO
8COTTXCZ8MS,
Designed to correct Improprieties of Speech and Writing.
By JAMES BEATTIE, LL.D.
Just Published, in 1 Vol., demy 8vo. with Illustrations, price 12s. doth.
HISTORICAL RECORD OF
The Honourable East India Company's
HEST MADRAS EUEOPEAN EEGIMENT;
Containing an Account of the Establishment of Independent Companies in 1645,
their formation into a Regiment in 1748, and its subsequent Services to 1842.
By A STAFF OFnCER.
In 1 Vol., Post 8vo., Price 9s. cloth lettered.
THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF SOGZETT IN INDIA;
Including Scenes at the Mofussil Stations, interspersed with Characteristic Tales and
Anecdotes: to which is added
A GUIDE TO CADETS
And other Toung Gendemen, during their first Years' Residence in India.
By Mrs. Major CLEMONS.
"We need not recommend this book; the space we have given to it is an ample proof
of the pleasure we have enjoyed in its perusal. We earnestly advise every person inter-
^ esied in India to read it." — Atlas.
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IP 02) SB 'ST IE 7.
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GEISELDA;
A Dramatic Poem,
Translated from the German of Frbderick Halm.
By Q. E.D.
<< An elegant translation of an elegant German poem." — ^Athenauh.
'* In conclusion we uroold strongly recommend " Griselda" to our readers ; assuring
them that, in our opinion, they will not easily meet with anything s(k deserving of
popularity, either from the purity of the style, the interest of the story, the fidelity of the
translation, the easy flow of the rhyme, or the elegance of the language." — ^Foreign
AND Colonial Quarterly Reyiew.
Just Published, In Demy Syo., Price 10s., handsomely bound in doth.
THE GOLUMBIAD.
Comprising geographical sketches and a narrative of nautical adventures in the Eastern
Seas, induding the perils of a storm, and providential escape from shipwredc ;— with
meditations on a future state.
By ARCHIBALD TUCKER RITCHIE, Esq.
In Demy 8to., price 6s. bound.
DATS IN THE EAST.
A Poem in Two Cantos.
Descriptive of Scenery in India, the departure from Home, the Voyage and subsequent
Career of an Officer in the East India Company's Army.
By JAMES HENRY BURKE, Esq., of Marble Hill;
Lieutenant Bombay Engineers; Member of the Bombay Branch of Royal Asiatic Society.
<<The Stanzas of Mr. Burke bespeak at once high feelings a vigorous cultivated intelli-
gence, and a delicate poetic taste." — ^Morning Herald.
"The execution is even, finished, and good." — ^Weekly Chronicle.
In post, 8vo., sewed in wrapper.
THE ANGLO-INDIAN AND COLONIAL ALMANACK,
AND
CIVIL, MILITARY, AND COMMERCIAL
DIBECTOET
Fq» 1845.
The HOME DEPARTMENT of the Almanack will comprise— I. Ciyil and Eccle-
siastical ; including the Government offices and the India House ; together with the
forms of procedure, and educational studies, requisite for obtaining civil appointments,
and all matters connected with those appointments, from the commencing salary to the
retiring allowance. U. Military and Marine ; including information of a similar kind
respecting these services, and the Home Establishment of the East India Compapy.
III. Commercial ; containing Lists of Merchants, Agents, Associations, &c., throug^at
the United Kingdom ; likewise, the trades connected with India and the Colonies; and
tariff of Indian and Colonial produce.
The EAST INDUN AND COLONLIL DEPARTMENT wifl embrace— L Civil :
The Government lists of Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Australia, New
Zealand, Mauritius, and the Cape of Good Hope; lists of Civil Servants and their appoint-
ments, and of Judicial Establishments, with a detailed account of the Benefit Funds.
II. Military : Staff and Field Officers ; distribution of the Army, induding the Royal
troops; Ecclesiastical Establishment; and all Benefit Funds. III. Commercial: List
of Mercantile Firms, Banks, Insurance Companies, Public Institutions, &c., in India and
the Colonies; with the respective Tariffis, and Tables of Money, Weights, Measures, &c.,
and other miscellaneous information.
London: Printed by Stjbwaxt ic Mubsat, Old Bailey. .
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