ELEMENTS OF PROSPERITY STILL EXISTING—?HINTS TO THE COLONISTS—?FUTURE PROSPECTS.

Notwithstanding the terrible shock from which Australia has been suffering ever since 1839, I still retain a high opinion of the Colony as an advantageous field for the employment of the spare capital of the mother country. The elements of prosperity still exist, and require only a little nursing in order to effect its recovery from the recent depression. The emigrant with a capital of three or four thousand pounds, must not, indeed, expect to make a fortune in a few years; but he may with perfect confidence look to make himself an independent man, at a much more rapid rate than he could by means of double that sum in England. If he is prudent, nurses his capital, sticks to his business as a settler, avoids tempting bargains of things he has no use for, and, above all, refrains from obliging his neighbours with the occasional loan of his name to a bill, I see not what can by possibility prevent his succeeding in such a country, even allowing that every third season should prove one of drought. To the industrious farmer with a small capital of 500l. or 1000l., New South Wales offers a fine field: he can obtain a hundred acres of the finest arable land in the world on a clearing-lease, with two years free for the clearing, and three or five years more on a moderate rent. A capital even of 500l. will enable him to fence his land, build himself a bush-house and out-offices, and maintain his family for two years; by which time it will be hard indeed, if he has not land enough under crop to return him something handsome. I have known many settlers of this kind thrive, and many others "go to the wall:" the former had a small capital to start with, while the latter commenced upon credit for the very bread required for their families; a plan I never knew to succeed.

Let but the settler stick to his business; the merchant be content with smaller profits than used to satisfy him, and cease giving long credit to all and everybody; let the banker be less grasping, and not quite so hard a creditor when he finds one of his customers in difficulties or reverses; let every one avoid speculations out of his strict line of business, and beware of accommodation-paper; and let the lower and middle classes avoid the public-house; and there is nothing to fear for Australia. It has had a severe lesson administered to it, that ought to be a warning to all its inhabitants for the future. I have no hesitation in saying, that nine-tenths of the evils from which the Colonists have suffered of late, have arisen from their own imprudence, and that these may be avoided in future by common caution, in spite of dry seasons and occasional failures of crops.

Now that colonization is extending up the coast from Sydney northwards, and the inhabited parts of the Colony already approach the tropic of Capricorn, New South Wales ought, in a few years, to be a rice and sugar-growing country. The soil on the banks of the rivers in the neighbourhood of Moreton Bay, is, from all accounts, equal to any thing hitherto known in the Colony; and the climate is very highly spoken of. Should the winter there prove too long or too severe for sugar-growing, (I do not see why it should be so,) parties anxious to try the culture of the cane as a means of making money, must in that case just move a little further north. There is an extensive field to explore, before they reach Torres' Straits.

That New South Wales will become an extensive wine-growing country, I conceive there is no room to doubt. Its vineyards are magnificent, in every sense of the word. I have visited several of them, and was struck with the abundance and variety of their produce. Two proprietors of my acquaintance have been for years in the practice of making wine of different sorts, but principally of the lighter kinds resembling the Rhenish. I can vouch for their being very palatable, particularly during the summer months. One of the gentlemen alluded to has also made very good port wine and brandy.

The greatest drawback on the commerce of New South Wales, is the deficiency of exports, the balance of trade being greatly against the Colony. Its wool and oil are what merchants have hitherto principally depended upon, though other exports are now coming into play; viz. cedar-timber, hides, tallow, and salt provisions. Still, I do not think that, even with these additions, the merchants of the Colony can manage to make their exports equal in value to their imports; and were it not for the very considerable sums drawn for on the Home Government, by the military department, for the pay and provisions of the troops, necessity would compel the merchants of England to reduce their shipments to Australia. The great fall in the price of the principal colonial staple, wool, has added very materially to the difficulties arising out of this state of affairs, by reducing the value of remittances made in that article to one half of what it used to be. The quantity of wool increases, it is true, from year to year, but not to such an extent as to counterbalance the fall in price; and it must be borne in mind, that, as fast as the wool increases, so does the population, and consequently the amount of imports in the shape of supplies, which have all to be remitted for. Since the opening of the coast of China to the commerce of the world, (the result of our late struggle with that country,—a struggle so much condemned by those who were ignorant of the merits of the case,) the merchants of Sydney seem to have entertained the idea, that their trade will benefit by the change. No one would rejoice more than myself at their anticipations proving correct; but I confess my judgment differs from theirs; and if we may judge by the result of their trial shipments, which arrived prior to my leaving China, it is to be feared they will find, to their cost, that they have reckoned without their host. The Sydney merchants, from what I have heard, expect to find in China a market for horses, cattle, and sheep, coarse woollens, wine, and salt provisions. The first three have been tried, and the experiment has proved an utter failure: the horses were sent to Calcutta, not a purchaser being found for one of them in Hong Kong. Cattle are out of the question: they cannot be transported five thousand miles to undersell the Chinese butcher, who gives fifteen pounds of good beef for a dollar—about 3¹/₂d. per pound. This price, the Sydney speculator cannot compete with, particularly as his beasts would certainly land in poor condition after so long a voyage, and either put him to the expense of fattening them, or compel him to sell at the low price of lean cattle. Sheep have also been tried by several ship-masters, and did not answer: the last lot that came, were slaughtered and sold in the market, the only way in which they could be got rid of, and which would not answer the purpose of a large importer. For coarse woollens, a market may certainly be found in China; but whether a profitable one, or not, to the Australian manufacturer, is, in my opinion, somewhat doubtful. Labour is so much cheaper in Britain than it is in Australia, that, I fear, the Sydney manufacturer would have but a poor chance, when his goods came into competition with those of Manchester, either in the Chinese or in any other market. Whatever kinds of goods may be required on the coast of China, will soon be supplied from Manchester and Glasgow at the lowest possible figure, the object of the manufacturers of those places being, I presume, a large trade with moderate profits; so moderate, indeed, as to leave the Sydney manufacturer no chance of competing with the means at the command of the British manufacturer. Australian wool, like Indian cotton, may be taken to England, be manufactured there, and sent out and sold in China, or anywhere else, for less money than it would cost the Sydney capitalist to produce the manufactured article. As to wine, it will be a long time before New South Wales has much to export; and the limited European population of China will not consume a sufficient quantity to be of importance to the Australian vine-grower. The Chinese cannot be counted upon as purchasers: they are not wine-drinkers, generally speaking; and the little they do consume, is manufactured to suit their own palates, in China.

For salt provisions, there is a considerable demand in China, among the European shipping that visit its ports: they must, however, be cheaper in Sydney than they were in my time, to answer the purpose of even a remittance. The Americans bring to China excellent beef and pork, which they sell at ten and twelve dollars (about 42s. to 54s.) per barrel of two hundred pounds weight. If these prices will remunerate the Sydney shipper, he may try his luck as soon as he likes; but he must not send an inferior article: if he does, he will sink his capital. Cedar-timber has been tried recently, and has answered very well to a small extent: this, however, will last only till the town of Victoria on the island of Hong-Kong is completely built.

By every fresh outlet for surplus stock that can be pointed out to the Australian grazier, we shall be rendering him a substantial service. Sir Robert Peel's new tariff will enable him to dispose of many a spare fat bullock. Of this opening he has already taken advantage, by sending trial shipments of salt beef to England.

It appears to me, that the imports and exports of Australia ought to be much nearer a balance than they are. To bring about this desirable state of things, it will be requisite to reduce the amount of the imports, which may be effected by giving up the importation of hams, bacon, cheese, butter, tobacco, and, in a great measure, grain. To see a pastoral country like New South Wales importing butter and cheese, is an anomaly, and only proves the waste and carelessness of the owners of herds numerous enough to supply all Europe with dairy produce. The importation of hams and bacon is another absurdity and evidence of wasteful husbandry. I have seen fruit, barn-sweepings, butter-milk, bran, &c. &c. wasted about a farm in Australia, in quantities sufficient to feed and fatten a hundred pigs, which would have kept the establishment in meat for half the year. Indeed, it is a common saying in the Colony, that the waste on one of its farms, would make an English farmer's fortune. These may seem minor articles, but vast sums of money are annually paid for them to London dealers. Besides these, are imported, pickles, preserved fruits, sweetmeats, shoes, clothing, and a thousand other articles, every one of which might be as well and as economically made in the Colony, thereby saving thousands per annum. A coat or other article of dress can be made in Sydney as well and as cheap as in London; and though the cloth must be obtained from England, there is no reason that the London tailor should benefit by the making, when the Sydney one is in want of work, and is willing to work as cheap as his London brother. Employing colonial workmen would keep vast sums of money in the country, that now go out of it.

Tobacco and snuff ought never to be imported, the Colony being quite equal to producing more than sufficient for its own consumption. The quality of colonial tobacco used to be complained of; but that objection no longer exists. Moreover, people who cannot complete their remittances for necessaries, have no right to be nice in their choice of luxuries. I am confident that I am within the mark, when I say, that 50,000l. sterling per annum are paid to Americans and others who import snuff and tobacco! This is a sum assuredly worth saving, and which the Colonists could easily save, by encouraging the growth and consumption of their own produce.

After what I have written upon the subject of Australian agriculture, I may be thought to be making a bold assertion in saying, that the necessity for the importation of grain might, in a great measure, be done away with in Australia. Nevertheless, such is my opinion; and I will proceed to give my reasons. In the first place, there is a great waste of wheat, as well as of every thing else, on every farm in the Colony. There is no gleaning; and what with the bad and careless threshing and the ill-thatched and worse-built stacks, which admit the rain, whereby thousands of bushels of wheat are destroyed, the waste is beyond any one's conception who has not actually witnessed it. In the second place, there is not nearly so much wheat grown in Australia as there might and ought to be. A simple process of irrigation, such as the Chinese or the Javanese, the machinery for which would not cost 5l., and would employ only two men when in operation, applied to the wheat-fields in dry seasons once a month, would save many a crop. All, or nearly all the wheat in the Colony, is grown on the banks of rivers, which, though they cease to flow in a season of drought, have always water in the deep parts of the channel or "water-holes." It requires no argument to prove, that irrigation, in such situations, is a very simple matter. Two Javanese, by means of a long lever attached to a tall tree on the bank of a river, with a large bucket and string at one end, and a string to hoist up by at the other end, will keep a small stream of water running over and fertilizing the neighbouring paddy-fields all day long, without fatiguing themselves. The Chinese water-wheel is also a simple and cheap contrivance, and would throw up water enough, in two hours, to irrigate, or even to inundate a tobacco or wheat-field. All that is wanted, besides the labour of two men, is a series of wooden troughs to convey the water from the river bank to the highest part of the field, whence it is easily guided over the other parts. A little attention to irrigation might, in my humble opinion, very soon make New South Wales independent of imported wheat.

Another means of doing away with the importation of grain and flour, may be found in paying more attention to the cultivation of maize. Large quantities of it are grown at present, but they might easily be doubled.[20] And here, irrigation would answer splendidly, the drills forming such convenient water-courses. Large as is the quantity of maize grown in Australia, it is not used as food for man;—why, I know not, but such is the fact;—and I have known a convict turn up his nose when offered corn-meal. Every one knows how extensively this article is used in America, and how wholesome a food it is. Were the Australian farmers firmly and unanimously to determine upon making their dependents take at least half their weekly allowance in maize-meal, in place of wheaten flour, the latter would soon become fond of it. There would then be an inducement to extend its cultivation; and the large sums of money annually remitted to Van Diemen's Land, Valparaiso, and Bengal, for wheat, would very shortly be reduced to a small cipher.

To urge this most desirable object any further upon the Colonists of New South Wales, would be to insult their good sense. I will only express a wish that they may at once adopt measures to equalize their imports and exports, and that the few hints here thrown out to them, may be of use.

The supply of tea and sugar to the Australian Colonies, has, on the whole, been a profitable trade to the parties engaged in it; but it has, of late, been overdone. The quality of the tea and sugar now sent to Sydney, is far superior to what it used to be; and the coarser sorts of both are going out of use; a clear proof that the population are improving in respectability. Formerly, nothing in the shape of either article was too bad to send out to Australia. Things have changed, however, and several speculators have been serious losers within the last three years, by sending goods that would have suited admirably six years ago. When I first went into the Bush, you might visit a dozen of the most respectable houses without being able to get any thing better than the most common hyson-skin tea and very dark moist sugar. A cup or two of the liquid made from these, would poison an old Indian; and I never ventured to drink it. A friend of mine, who absolutely dreaded being compelled to drink this stuff, used always to carry a paper of good black tea in his pocket, whenever he left his own house. He was in the right, though often laughed at. Mauritius sugar used to be the favourite at the time I speak of; but now, Manilla, Singapore, and Batavia are looked to for the supply of a better and cheaper article. From Manilla the Colonists import small supplies of coffee, chocolate, reed hats, and cheroots. Singapore and Batavia send them, in addition to sugar, quantities of rice, spices, Dutch gin, tea brought thither by Chinese junks, planks, &c. &c. Singapore sends also a ship or two annually to South Australia, Port Philip, and Van Diemen's Land.

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