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to Captain Richie by Mrs. M'Quarie; who, accompanied by his Excellency, honoured each day's race with her presence, and who, with her usual affability, was pleased to preface the donation with the following short address:- In the name of the Ladies of New South Wales, I have the pleasure to present you with this cup. Give me leave to congratulate you on being the successful candidate for it; and to hope that it is a prelude to future! success, and lasting prosperity.'"-(P. 357.)

BUTCHERS.

"Now killing, at Matthew Pimpton's, Cumberland Street, Rocks, beef, mutton, pork, and lamb. By retail, 1s. 4d. per lib. Mutton by the carcass, is. per lib. sterling, or 14d. currency; warranted to weigh from 10 lib. to 12 lib. per quarter. Lamb per ditto.-Captains of ships supplied at the wholesale price, and with punctuality.-N. B. Beef, pork, mutton, and lamb, at E. Lamb's, Hunter Street, at the above prices."—(P. 376.)

"SALT PORK AND FLAIR FROM OTAHEIte.

"On Sale, at the warehouse of Mrs. S. Willis, 96, George Street, a large quantity of the above articles, well cured, being the Mercury's last importation from Otaheite. The terms per cask are 10d. per lib. sterling, or 1s. currency.-N. B. For the accommodation of families, it will be sold in quantities not less than 112 lib."-(P. 377.)

"PAINTING. A CARD.

"Mr. J. W. Lewin begs leave to inform his friends and the public in general, that he intends opening an academy for painting on the days of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from the hours of 10 to 12 in the forenoon.-Terms, 5s. a lesson; Entrance, 20s.-N.B. The evening academy for drawing continued as usual." (P. 384.)

"SALE OF RAMS.

"Ten rams of the Merino breed, lately sold by auction from the flocks of John M'Arthur, Esq., produced upwards of 200 guineas."-(P. 388.)

"MRS. JONES'S VACATION BALL, DECEMBER 12TH,

"Mrs. Jones, with great respect, informs the parents and guardians of the young ladies intrusted to her tuition that the vacation ball is fixed for Tuesday the 22nd instant, at the seminary, No. 45, Castlereagh Street, Sydney. Tickets, 7s. 6d. each."—(P. 388.)

"SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

"A fine hunt took place the 8th instant at the Nepean, of which the following is the account given by a gentleman present. Having cast off by the government hut on the Nepean, and drawn the cover in that neighbourhood for a native dog unsuccessfully, we tried the forest ground for a kangaroo, which we soon found. It went off in excellent style along the sands by the river side, and crossed to the Cow-pasture Plains, running a circle of about two miles; then re-crossed, taking a direction for Mr. Campbell's stock-yard, and from thence at the back of Badge Allen Hill to the head of Bcorroobaham Creek, where he was headed; from thence he took the main range of hills between the Badge Allen and Badge Allenabinjee, in a straight direction for Mr. Throsbey's farm, where the hounds ran in to him; and he was killed, after a good run of about two hours,'-The weight of the animal was upwards of 120 lib."-(P. 380.)

Of the town of Sydney Mr. Wentworth observes that there are in it many public buildings, as well as houses of individuals, that would not disgrace the best parts of London; but this description we must take the liberty to consider as more patriotic than true. We rather suspect it was penned before Mr. Wentworth was in London; for he is (be it said to his honour) a native of Botany Bay. The value of lands (in the same spirit he adds) is half as great in Sydney as in the best situations in London, and is daily increasing. The proof of this which Mr. Wentworth gives is that "it is not a commodious house which can be rented for £100 per annum, unfurnished." The town of Sydney contains two good public schools, for the education of 224 children of both sexes. There are establishments also for the diffusion of education in every populous district throughout the colony; the masters of these schools are allowed stipulated salaries from the Orphans' Fund. Mr. Wentworth states that one eighth part of the whole revenue of the colony is appropriated to the purposes of education;-this eighth he computes at £2,500. Independent of these institutions, there are an Auxiliary Bible Society, a Sunday School, and several good private schools. This is all as it

should be the education of the poor, important everywhere, is indispensable at Botany Bay. Nothing but the earliest attention to the habits of children can restrain the erratic finger from the contiguous scrip, or prevent the hereditary tendency to larcenous abstraction. The American arrangements respecting the education of the lower orders is excellent. Their unsold lands are surveyed, and divided into districts. In the centre of every district, an ample and well selected lot is provided for the support of future schools. We wish this had been imitated in New Holland; for we are of opinion that the elevated nobleman, Lord Sidmouth, should imitate what is good and wise, even if the Americans are his teachers. Mr. Wentworth talks of 15,000 acres set apart for the support of the Female Orphan Schools; which certainly does sound a little extravagant: but then 50 or 100 acres of this reserve are given as a portion to each female orphan; so that all this pious tract of ground will be soon married away. This dotation of women, in a place where they are scarce, is amiable and foolish enough. There is a school also for the education and civilisation of the natives; we hope not to the exclusion of the children of convicts, who have clearly a prior claim upon public charity.

Great exertions have been made in public roads and bridges. The present Governor has wisely established toll-gates in all the principal roads. No tax can be more equitable, and no money more beneficially employed. The herds of wild cattle have either perished through the long droughts or been destroyed by the remote settlers. They have nearly disappeared; and their extinction is a good rather than an evil. A very good horse for cart or plough may now be bought for £5 to £10; working oxen for the same price; fine young breeding ewes from £1 to £3, according to the quality of the fleece. So lately as 1808, a cow and calf were sold by public auction for £105; and the price of middling cattle was from £80 to £ioo. A breeding mare was, at the same period, worth from 150 to 200 guineas; and ewes from £10 to £20. The inhabitants of New South Wales have now 2,000 years before them of cheap beef and mutton. The price of land is, of course, regulated by its situation and quality. Four years past an hundred and fifty acres of very indifferent ground, about three quarters of a mile from Sydney, were sold, by virtue of an execution, in lots of 12 acres each, and averaged 14 per acre. This is the highest price given for land not situated in a town. The general average of unimproved land is £5 per acre. In years when the crops have not suffered from flood or drought, wheat sells for 9s. per bushel; maize for 3s. 6d. ; barley for 5s. ; oats for 4s. 6d. ; potatoes for 6s. per cwt. By the last accounts received from the colony, mutton and beef were 6d. per lib.; veal, 8d; pork, 9d. Wheat, 8s. 8d. per bushel; oats, 4s. ; and barley, 5s. per ditto. Fowls, 4s. 6d. per couple; ducks, 6s. per ditto; geese, 5s. each; turkeys, 7s. 6d. each; eggs, 2s. 6d. per dozen; butter, 2s. 6d. per lib.-There are manufactures of coarse woollen cloths, hats, earthenware, pipes, salt, candles, soap. There are extensive breweries and tanneries; and all sorts of mechanics and artificers necessary for an infant colony. Carpenters, stonemasons, bricklayers, wheel and ploughwrights, and all the most useful descriptions of artificers, can earn from 8s. to 10s. per day. Great attention has been paid to the improvement of wool; and it is becoming a very considerable article of export to this country.

The most interesting circumstance in the accounts lately received from Botany Bay is the discovery of the magnificent river on the western side of the Blue Mountains. The public are aware that a fine road has been made from Sydney to Bathurst, and a new town founded at the foot of the western side of these mountains, a distance of 140 miles. The country in the neigh

bourhood of Bathurst has been described as beautiful, fertile, open, and eminently fit for all the purposes of a settlement. The object was to find a river; and such an one has been found, the description of which it is impossible to read without the most lively interest. The intelligence is contained in a despatch from Mr. Oxley, Surveyor-General of the settlement, to the Governor, dated 30th August, 1817.

"On the 19th, we were gratified by falling in with a river running through a most beau tiful country, and which I would have been well contented to have believed the river we were in search of. Accident led us down the stream about a mile, when we were surprised by its junction with a river coming from the south, of such width and magnitude as to dispel all doubts as to this last being the river we had so long anxiously looked for. Short as our resources were, we could not resist the temptation this beautiful country offered us to remain two days on the junction of the river, for the purpose of examining the vicinity to as great an extent as possible.

"Our examination increased the satisfaction we had previously felt. As far as the eye could reach in every direction a rich and picturesque country extended, abounding in limestone, slate, good timber, and every other requisite that could render an uncultivated country desirable. The soil cannot be excelled; whilst a noble river of the first magnitude affords the means of conveying its productions from one part to the other. Where I quitted it its course was northerly; and we were then north of the parallel of Port Stevens, being in latitude 33° 45' south, and 148° 58′ east longitude.

"It appeared to me that the Macquarrie had taken a north-north-west course from Bathurst, and that it must have received immense accessions of water in its course from that place. We viewed it at a period best calculated to form an accurate judgment of its importance, when it was neither swelled by floods beyond its natural and usual height nor contracted within its limits by summer droughts. Of its magnitude when it should have received the streams we had crossed, independent of any it may receive from the east, which from the boldness and height of the country, I presume, must be at least as many, some idea may be formed, when at this point it exceeded, in breadth and apparent depth, the Hawkesbury at Windsor. Many of the branches were of grander and more extended proportion than the admired one on the Nepean River from the Warragambia to Emu Plains. "Resolving to keep as near the river as possible during the remainder of our course to Bathurst, and endeavour to ascertain, at least on the west side, what waters fell into it, on the 22nd we proceeded up the river, and, between the point quitted and Bathurst, crossed the sources of numberless streams, all running into the Macquarrie. Two of them were nearly as large as that river itself at Bathurst. The country from whence all these streams derive their source was mountainous and irregular, and appeared equally so on the east side of the Macquarrie. This description of country extended to the immediate vicinity of Bathurst: but to the west of those lofty ranges the country was broken into low grassy hills and fine valleys, watered by rivulets rising on the west side of the mountains, which, on their eastern side, pour their waters directly into the Macquarrie.

""These westerly streams appeared to me to join that which I had at first sight taken for the Macquarrie; and, when united, fall into it at the point at which it was first discovered on the 19th instant.

"We reached this place last evening, without a single accident having occurred during the whole progress of the expedition, which from this point has encircled, with the parallels of 34° 30' south and 32° south, and between the meridians of 149° 43′ and 143° 40' east, a space of nearly one thousand miles.""—(Wentworth, pp. 72-75.)

The nearest distance from the point at which Mr. Oxley left off to any part of the western coast is very little short of 2,000 miles. The Hawkesbury, at Windsor (to which he compares his new river in magnitude), is 250 yards in breadth, and of sufficient depth to float a 74-gun ship. At this point it has 2,000 miles in a straight line to reach the ocean; and if it wind, as rivers commonly do wind, it has a space to flow over of between 5,000 and 6,000 miles. The course and direction of the river has since become the object of two expeditions, one by land, under Mr. Oxley; the other by sea, under Lieutenant King, to the results of which we look forward with great interest. Enough of the country on the western side of the Blue Mountains has been discovered to show that the settlement has been made on the wrong side. The space between the Mountains and the Eastern Sea is not above 40 miles in breadth, and the five or six miles nearest the coast are of very barren land. The country on the other side is boundless, fertile, well-watered, and of

very great beauty. The importance of such a river as the Macquarrie is incalculable. We cannot help remarking here the courtly appellations in which geography delights;-the river Hawkesbury; the town of Windsor on its banks; Bathurst Plains; Nepean River. Shall we never hear of the Gulph of Tierney; Brougham Point; or the straits of Mackintosh on the river Grey?

The mistakes which have been made in settling this fine colony are of considerable importance, and such as must very seriously retard its progress to power and opulence. The first we shall mention is the settlement on the Hawkesbury. Every work of nature has its characteristic defects. Marshes should be suspected of engendering disease-a volcanic country of eruptions -rivers of overflowing. A very little portion of this kind of reflection would have induced the disposers of land in New South Wales to have become a little better acquainted with the Hawkesbury before they granted land on its banks, and gave that direction to the tide of settlement and cultivation. It turns out that the Hawkesbury is the embouchure through which all the rain that falls on the eastern side of the Blue Mountains makes its way to the sea; and accordingly, without any warning, or any fall of rain on the settled part of the river, the stream has often risen from 70 to 90 feet above its common level.

"These inundations often rise seventy or eighty feet above low-water mark; and in the instance of what is still emphatically termed 'the great flood' attained an elevation of ninety-three feet. The chaos of confusion and distress that presents itself on these occasions cannot be easily conceived by anyone who has not been a witness of its horrors. An immense expanse of water, of which the eye cannot, in many directions, discover the limits, everywhere interspersed with growing timber, and crowded with poultry, pigs, horses, cattle, stacks, and houses, having frequently men, women, and children clinging to them for protection, and shrieking out in an agony of despair for assistance: such are the principal objects by which these scenes of death and devastation are characterised.

"These inundations are not periodical, but they most generally happen in the month of March. Within the last two years there have been no fewer than four of them, one of which was nearly as high as the great flood. In the six years preceding there had not been one. Since the establishment of the colony they have happened, upon an average, about once in three years.

"The principal cause of them is the contiguity of this river to the Blue Mountains. The Grose and Warragambia rivers, from which two sources it derives its principal supply, issue direct from these mountains; and the Nepean river, the other principal branch of it, runs along the base of them for fifty or sixty miles, and receives in its progress, from the innumerable mountain torrents connected with it, the whole of the rain which these mountains collect in that great extent. That this is the principal cause of these calamitous inundations has been fully proved; for shortly after the plantation of this colony, the Hawkesbury overflowed its banks (which are, in general, about thirty feet in height), in the midst of harvest, when not a single drop of rain had fallen on the Port Jackson side of the mountains. Another great cause of the inundations which take place in this and the other rivers in the colony is the small fall that is in them, and the consequent slowness of their currents. The current in the Hawkesbury, even when the tide is in full ebb, does not exceed two miles an hour. The water, therefore, which during the rains rushes in torrents from the mountains, cannot escape with sufficient rapidity; and from its immense accumulation soon overtops the banks of the river, and covers the whole of the low country."-Wentworth, pp. 24-26 ) It appears to have been a great oversight not to have built the town of Sydney upon a regular plan. Ground was granted, in the first instance, without the least attention to this circumstance; and a chaos of pigstyes and houses was produced, which subsequent governors have found it extremely difficult to reduce to a state of order and regularity.

Regularity is of consequence in planning a metropolis; but fine buildings are absurd in the infant state of any country. The various governors have unfortunately displayed rather too strong a taste for architecture-forgetting that the real Palladio for Botany Bay, in its present circumstances, is he who keeps out the sun, wind, and rain, with the smallest quantity of bricks and mortar.

The appointment of Governor Bligh appears to have been a very serious misfortune to the colony-at such an immense distance from the mothercountry, with such an uncertainty of communication, and with a population so peculiarly circumstanced. In these extraordinary circumstances, the usual jobbing of the Treasury should really be laid aside, and some little attention paid to the selection of a proper person. It is common, we know, to send a person who is somebody's cousin; but when a new empire is to be founded the Treasury should send out, into some other part of the town, for a man of sense and character.

Another very great absurdity which has been committed at Botany Bay is the diminution of their strength and resources by the foundation of so many subordinate settlements. No sooner had the settlers unpacked their boxes at Port Jackson than a fresh colony was settled in Norfolk Island under Lieutenant King, which was afterwards abandoned after considerable labour and expense from the want of a harbour; besides four or five settlements on the main land, two or three thousand persons, under a Lieutenant-Governor, and regular officers, are settled in Van Diemen's Land. The difficulties of a new colony are such that the exertions of all the arms and legs are wanted merely to cover their bodies and fill their bellies: the passage from one settlement to another, necessary for common intercourse, is a great waste of strength; ten thousand men, within a given compass, will do much more for the improvement of a country than the same number spread over three times the space--will make more miles of road, clear more acres of wood, and build more bridges. The judge, the windmill, and the school are more accessible; and one judge, one windmill, and one school may do instead of two;-there is less waste of labour. We do not, of course, object to the natural expansion of a colony over uncultivated lands—the more rapidly that takes place the greater is the prosperity of the settlement; but we reprobate the practice of breaking the first population of a colony, by the interposition of Government, into small detached portions, placed at great intervals. It is a bad economy of their resources; and as such, is very properly objected to by the Committee of the House of Commons.

This colony appears to have suffered a good deal from the tyranny as well as the ignorance of its governors. On the 7th December, 1816, Governor Macquarrie issued the following order :—

"His Excellency is also pleased further to declare, order, and direct, that in consideration of the premises, the under-mentioned sums, amounts, and charges, and no more, with regard to and upon the various denominations of work, labour, and services, described and set forth, shall be allowed, claimed, or demandable within this territory and its dependencies in respect thereof."-(Wentworth, pp. 105, 106.)

And then follows a schedule of every species of labour, to each of which a maximum is affixed. We have only to observe that a good stout inundation of the Hawkesbury would be far less pernicious to the industry of the colony than such gross ignorance and absurdity as this order evinces. Young surgeons are examined in Surgeons' Hall on the methods of cutting off legs and arms before they are allowed to practise surgery. An examination on the principles of Adam Smith, and a licence from Mr. Ricardo, seem to be almost a necessary preliminary for the appointment of Governors. We must give another specimen of Governor Macquarrie's acquaintance with the principles of political economy.

"General Orders.

"His Excellency has observed, with much concern, that, at the present time of scarcity, most of the garden ground attached to the allotments, whereon different descriptions of per sons have been allowed to build huts, are totally neglected, and no vegetable growing there. on :-as such neglect in the occupiers points them out as unfit to profit by such indulgence,

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