The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-21 00:00:00

co'rery.

The rise of New South Wales (the first settle-
ment of the British) was slow, because of the very
nature of the service to which it was devoted.
Free emigrants do not like to take up their abode at
a penal settlement; and great encouragement was
required from the Government to induce them to
resort to New South Wales in early days. In
1788 the British Ensign was first hoisted at Port
Jackson, and in 1792 there were only 67 free men
in the colony, but gradually the immigrants in-
creased, and the very cause which retarded the
advancement of the colony tended to develop it ; the
convicts were set to work, and in the course of time
roads were formed, upon which, if free labour had
been employed at the high rate of Australian wages,
it would have checked even the ardour of tie Vic-
torian public, when rich in gold in an almost impas-
sible country, resolved to have roads at any price.
The very insubordination of the convicts, while a
terror to the settler, was sometimes of benefit to
the State. The colony, as far as explored, reached
on one side to the Blue Mountains ; all beyond was
unknown, when a runaway convict, who preferred
to take his chance of life or death in the bush,
among the aborigines, than endure the horrors of
penal servitude, crossed these unknown mountains,
and peuetrated the wilds until from a high over-
hanging cliff he beheld the wide extended plains of
Bathurst stretching far away in the distance. The
long, dry grass waving with the wind under the
morning mist gave it the appearance of some vast
river or an arm of the sea. This was a ne plus
ultra for the runaway ; however, he thought to
make the best of it, and on the strength of his
supposed great discovery, threw himself on
the mercy of the authorities. The information was
joyfully received; a conditional pardon promised in
case of the story proving true ; an expedition sent
out when they discovered the statement to be in-
correct, but oh, how much better than their
brightest expectations when, in place of the briny
ocean they found miles upon miles of the finest
cultivating land, without a tree to be cleared
away, and watered by a river which wandered
through the midst of it.
New South Wales was a flourishing colony
before 1851, her principal exports consisting
of wool and tallow. Not much attention
was paid to agriculture, save for the wants
of the inhabitants, her riches lying in
flocks and herds. But, if New South Wales
was sacred to PAN, South Australia was
under the benignant influence of CERES. Scantily
wooded, with extended plains (although in many
places badly watered, and that water, too, often
brackish), and a rich soil, it presented a glorious
field to the farmer. Consequently, at the present
day South Australia (half English, half German,
for the Germans have many settlements in these
parts) supplies her golden neighbour from her
superfluity—having had in 1858, with a population
of 11,000, 187,560 acres under wheat alone, which
gave a return of 30,000 tons of flour. Besides this,
the ♦ine is extensively cultivated both here and in
the other colonies. In New South Wales, in 1857,
there were 1,128 acres under cultivation as vine-
yards, from which 108,174 gallons of wine and
1,414 gallons of brandy were obtained. But if
New South Wales was slow in emerging from
obscurity, Victoria arose as if by magic. In
1833, Colonel COLLI., who had a party stationed
at Port Phillip, abandoned the place in despair;
and although it was afterwards settled on in 1851,
the population of the province amounted to 77,345,
of whom 28,143 resided in Melbourne; but the
"fiat had gone forth," and the city of Melbourne
spread out on all sides, roads shot out in every direc-
tion, and in spite of a scarcity of labour and the high
rate of wages, six years afterwards good roads were
completed to some diggings, and fast advancing to-
wards completion to others. The population of the
country had increased to 410,766, and that of Mel-
bourne to 99,345 ; her imports in 1851 amounted to
£1,056,437, and in 1857 to upwards of £17,000,000.
The population now exceeds 500,000, and is
gradually on the increase; but although the colony
is prosperous,wealthy, and transmits, in conjunction
with New South Wales, ten millions worth of treasure
annually to the mother-country; although wages
are high, and the country but partially developed,
nevertheless there is a great deal of distress in the
country—tradesmen cannot get employment in
their vocations, at least not for a continuance—
labourers are wandering about the bush seeking
employment, which the small farmers are loath to
accord, preferring to obtain servants from the im-
migration office, where they can engage new arri-
vals at their own price. The Colonial Government
is rather in a fix how to act ; on the one hand the
settlers are calling out for the encouragement of im-
migration, and on the other the unemployed demand-
ing employment. We do not wish Government im-
migration should cease. Australia has been, and
must for many years to come, bo the safety-valve
to relieve us of our surplus population, but means
must be found to give constant employment to them
when they arrive, even at redueed wages. It is a
chimera to say that labourers and mechanics can save
money at the high rate of wages which they enjoy,
when in all probability they do not on an average
obtain more than six months' employment during
the year. However, things aro taking a change for
the better. The people are awakening to a sense
of their own power ; and the few who ruled the
roast, while the many were disorganised and indif-
ferent, will have to succumb, and the monopoly in
land will be crushed. When once there is a
chance for a man when ho has made an indepen-
dence to purchase a home at a reasonable price,
then will the wealth of Australia be kept to sup-
port her institutions and aid her commerce ; but
until the public lands are liberally thrown open to
the public, the wealthy gold diggers will leave her
shores to seek elsewhere a resting place, which
mal-administration has forbidden them to hope for
in Australia.