The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-20 00:00:00

THE -SUN, LODOI4II, PRIDA.Y-EVrEINI-NG,;OCTOBES 20, let C.

than in London and Paris, in the distant districts, where
the sheep are healthy, they are killed and boiled down
for tallow ; where the scab rage, they are killed, piled
in heaps, and burnt by the hundred, to destroy every
trace of the n. Tn neither case do they add a pound to
the supply of human food. Australia is called A " great
grazing and pastoral country," and yet mutton and
milk are scarce and dear ; both are growing scarcer,
and meat of all kinds, according to colonial authorities,
is fast deteriorating in quality. Australia is not a pas-
toral or grazing country i❑ the true sense of the words ;
its surface is devoted to the production of wool and
tallow for exportation—the last may be termed a manu-
facture ; but the supply of wholesome and abundant
food for the inhabitants is not the chief object of the so-
called pastoral interest ; it is secondary to the exports,
to obtain one of which the cattle must be totally de-
stroyed as food. Thus, with 1,500m0 of horned cattle
and 8,000,000 of sheep in this province alone, less than
300,000 people pay more dearly for meat than the in-
habitants of the densely crowded cities of Europe ; and
milk, that most pastoral article, can scaroely be obtained
pure, even for money.
The following is an abstract of .the quarter's revenue
for New South Wales to the 30th of June :

it, and contrasts most favourably with the sluggish in-
difference of the authorities in both provinces before his
arrival. The lighthouse built on Cape Howe after the
dreadful wreck of the Monumental City had been allowed
to run short of oil for the lamps and provisions for the
attendants. The superintendent sent notice of the state
of affairs both to Sydney and Melbourne, but nothing
was done. Questions were asked in the Council here,
but the Government could only hope, and believe, and
consider as usual. The shipping interest grew alarmed,
and, through the press, urged the Government to send
down supplies instantly. Nothing effectual was done,
and the light was reported to be burning dine as if the
attendants were eking out the stock of oil by reducing
the number of lamps. At the end of six weeks the light
was extinguished, and there was no beacon on this dan-
gerous turning point of the coast for eight nights. On
his last voyage down the captain of the Hellespont, a
coasting steamer, reported the total disappearance of the
light to the previous immovable authorities of Victoria ;
but in the interval Sir°. Hotham had arrived ; the instant
he heard of it a stock ofoil was placed on boardthe Helles-
pont, with a letter from the Governor's secretary to the cap-
tain, containing a stronger expression of feeling than is
generally found in an official" hereby directed"—namely,
an intimation that " as the articles were sent in the cause of
humanity, and especially for protecting the lives of sea-
merle" his Excellency felt confident "every possible
exertion would be used to land the stores," and with all
despatch they were landed accordingly. The authorities
of both provinces, if they can read between the lines,
may, perhaps, detect in Sir Charles's letter a censure of
their previous indifference to the " cause of humanity
and the lives of seamen," for which they cannot plead
ignorance. Slight as the incident may seem at a dis-
tance, it has produced a most favourable impression here,
where quick decision and prompt action are unusual,
and an inexplicable difficulty in getting anything done
weighs on the community like an evil spell. It is also
rumoured that Sir Charles Hotham has already ex-
pressed his disapproval of the lavish and, in some cases,
senseless extravagance of expenditure in some of the
departments. There is some chance of the estimates
next year not being a million above the revenue.
The prospects of steam communication with England
begin to be regarded with anxiety. The success of the
American Company that has opened the Pacific route to
Panama, with the Golden Age, is yet uncertain, and
from the Atlantic side of the Isthmus no exact arrange-
ments have been made for the conveyance of mails or
passengers. One English Company has abandoned the
line ; the one steamer of the Peninsular and Oriental
Company every 2 months, and the vessels of the General
Screw Company by the Cape of Good Hope, are now the
only steamers to Australia that can be depended on. It
was expected the war would withdraw some vessels from
the Australian trade ; but it is feared, unless the colonies
afford some substantial assistance to the companies, that
the reduction of the number may be carried further.
One of the heaviest items of the expense of a steamer is
the stock of coals for the home voyage and the labour
of shippine. it. It has been suggested that the New
South Wales coal might be dug by the labour of prisoners
under sentence, brought down from the Hunter River
in ships chartered for the purpose, and put on board in
the same inexpensive manner. The Government could
thus lessen the outlay of the steam companies in Syd-
ney considerably ; but a joint subsidy in money, to
which the three provinces might contribute equally,
would be simpler. It is regularity of arrival and de-
departure that is required as much as speed ; and with-
out some recompenes it is not to be expected that any
English private company can regulate the sailing of its
vessels to suit the colony alone. At the same time the
colonists feel that, in the postal arrangements of the
English Government, they have not received the con-
sideration they are entitled to. To China, where the
Europeans may be counted by scores, there is a fort-
nightly mail ; to Australia, with a population almost
exclusively British approaching a million, till lately the
only contract mail was one every two months ; even
now there is only one a month. The Argus calculates
the amount of postage to and from the Australian colo-
nies at 200,0001. a year. For half that sum a' steam
communication might be established every fornight, and
as it seems an accepted principle that postage should
not be considered a source of revenue, the present rates
might be reduced fully one-half.
The establishment of a Mint in the colony has excited
a long debate in the Council ; doubts have arisen whether
a colonial gold coinage is now necessary, though it was so
when the permission to coin was applied for. But, as
the expense has been incurred, and the staff and machi-
nery provided, the general feeling is that the experiment
may as well be tried. The privilege of coining is also
no small step in the progress to self-government. The
vote of the Council, therefore, confirms the proposal of
the Governor's speech, and the Mint will commence
work as soon as the arrangements can be made. Pur-
chasers have frequently been imposed on by direct
frauds—coating lead by the electrotype has been prac-
tised successfully. Shipping agents are well aware of
the differences of quality even in genuine samples of
gold, and will not give receipts for the value, only for
the weight of parcels exported. It is to be feared that,
on examination at home, they have not always been
found up to the Bank standard, though the price here
has long been above it. This .uncertainty, at least, will
not attach to the Australian sovereigns, which are to be
of the weight and value of the Imperial coin. There
need not, therefore, be any prejudice against them,
though legally they will net be money in England.
As so much of the raw material of coin is raised here,
it cannot be any disadvantage to convert it into the
manufactured article on the spot, as in that shape it
will be equally valuable everywhere else. It does
seem irrational to send gold half round the world to
be coined that it may come back again as money. But
those who think the establishment of a Mint will dimi-
nish the exportation of gold, or even check it, will be dis-
appointed.
The Council has voted the sum of 5,000/. which the
Executive proposed- to advance as a loan to the Paris
Exhibition Committee for the purchase of specimens of
the gold of New South Wales, to be sent to Paris among
the other products of the colony. After the Exhibition
is closed, it is calculated the gold can be sold, and the
sum advanced by the Treasury replaced. There was
some opposition to the plan, as many think the money
can be better appropriated in the colony—in repairing
the roads for instance—and that the richness of our soil
in this metal, is sufficiently known to the world already.
But it was urged with much force that an exhibition of
the products of New South Wales, without any classi-
fied specimens of its gold, would be very incomplete,
while, if well arranged, a collection of every variety of
form in which geld is found would be the most interest-
ing of our native productions. The money was there-
fore voted, the more readily as it is tolerably certain it
will be recovered by the sale of the solid " nuggets,"
dust, and gold-bearing quartz which are to represent our
mineral wealth at Paris. Our other staples—wool and
tallow—may not attract much attention ; but the speci-
mens of theedifferent Australian woods will be well
worth the notice of the French cabinetmakers. A far
better selection will
the
ie
forwarded
ardte someha admirablynthat
adapted sentto
tfaoririedrtsheornamentalanl°"gh work in which the French
excel. To make the collection of speci-
mens as complete as possible, Mr. Moore, the director
of the Sydney Botanic-garden, was despatched to the
most remote northern districts of the province to obtain
some of the varieties only to be found in the region ap-
proaching the southern tropic. We have no manufac-
tures, except those of a few common articles that are
made better and in larger quantities in the poorest
countries of Europe ; but of natural products Australia
will send enough to prove her immense " capability," as
yet wholly undeveloped. In everything that requires
labour it is only a land of promise, the realisation lying
far in the future. If gold could not be dug out of the
earth ready for the market—if it required any process
of smelting or working to render it saleable—not a
tenth of the quantity exported would be produced.
We have abundance of iron, for instance, but not a
single mine has been opened, though a few score miles
of tramway would be more valuable than a new gold field.
There is an enormous coalbed at half the distance by
sea from Sydney that Newcastle is from London, yet
the retail price of coals this winter has ranged from 71.
to 8/. 10s. per ton. Specimens of our iron, coal, and
copper will, no doubt, also be sent for exhibition ;
but the public in France and England must not there-
fore be led to believe that the community derives
more than the slightest advantage from them. We
have scarcely smelted native iron enough to make an
axletree, and native coals can only be burnt by the weal-
thy, who, in case of necessity, could feed their kitchen
ranges with lumps of silver ore if that were combustible.
The tickets of most of the specimens of native produc-
tions, vegetable and mineral (gold excepted), to give an
honest account of the state of thinge, should be inscribed
" Known to exist, but not to be had." This is the case
even with colonial wine, of which several cases will be
sent to frighten the French growers by apprehensions of
competing vineyards of clarets and Burgundies. The
French vignerons need not feel the least alarm. At the
present rate of progress in the cultivation of the vine iu
the colony there will not be a cask of native vin ordi-
naire for sale in Sydney itself for the next half century.
The annual meeting of the New South Wales Vineyard
Association has just been held, and its report proved a
complete stagnation of enterprise. Even if the growers
were as active as they are apathetic, they would not ef-
fect much in the manner they now proceed. They are
few in number, wealthy, and indifferent to the. pursuit,
except as it furnishes a source of amusement ; there is
a mild, quiet rivalry between the dilettanti, who grow
vines much as they might grow dahlias or tulips. At
the annual meetings they taste each other's samples; pro-
nounce an opinion more or less flattering of this or that
gentleman's squeeze "of 1851."—to call it a vintage would
be absurd ; and, after reporting they have done nothing
during the past year, separate to do the same through
the next. Wine-growing in Australia is not yet an indus-
try; the result never reaclies the market, and foreigners
who have read the glowing descriptions of the " capa-
bilities" of the colony, copied by one bookmaker from
another, are astonished to find that in what they have
been led to suppose is a wine-growing country it is im-
possible by ordinary means to obtain a single bottle.
This is to be regretted, since it makes a had impression
on the natives of those countries who brine, a practical
knowledge of this branch of cultivation with them ; ex-
cept as a labourer iii the employ of what may be called
exhibiting amateurs, no Frenchman or German has yet
embarked in the pursuit.
One article formerly grown in the colony to some ex-
tent—tobacco—has disappeared from commerce. The
revised tariff destroyed that branch of cultivation, ner
is it much to be regretted.
The supply of meat is running short, if rising prices
can be taken as an indication. In the western dis-
trict of Victoria the scab is ravaging the flocks of sheep.
It has appeared, also, in the district of Moreton Bay,
in this province. It does not seem possible to arrest
this disease by any individual effort, and combined
action is alleged to be impracticable. Thus, while mut-
ton is at a higher retail price in Sydney and Melbourne

GENERAL REVENUE
Second Quarter
1 1851

~. £151,999
...- 169,110

Increase, being 8i per cent £14,111

TERRITORIAL REVENUE!
Second Quarter { 1853

£46 825
b 9,982

Increase, being 28 per cent £13,157

TOTAL RECEIPTS.

..
Second Quarter 185 18534..

~. £201,824
... 299,092

Increase, being 13i per cent £27,268
The Customs' revenue shows a considerable increase :
Second Quarter 1853 £75,658
{ 1834 98,164

Increase, being 30 per cent £22,505
All the items of this branch of the revenue show an in-
crease except one ;--
Increase. Per cent.
Spirits imported £10,510 24.3
Tobacco imported
Wine 3,763 72'6
Sugar 855 11.9
Tea 4,532 62'1
Coffee, &e 1,267 221'5
Decrease.
Ale and beer £239 10.9
Tho gold revenue again shows a falling off, the decrease
on the quarter having been 8,570/.