The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-19 00:00:00

APPOINTMENTS.

Captain—Augustly Kuptr C.B. (1841), has been ap•
pointed to a good service pension.
Naval Cadets—F. H. Chapman and S. H. Rickman,
to the Boscawen, 70, flag-st ip, at Devonport ; J. L
Heane and C. S. Broome, to the Cumberland, 70; at
Chatham.

NORTH AUSTRALIA AS A PENAL
SETTLEMENT.

Our Australian colonies wore for a long time under-
valued as places of settlement for free men, and considered
only as fit spots for the exile of evildoers. For the last
few years public opinion has flowed in the opposite direc-
tion, and there is a tendency to predict for Australia a fu-
ture destiny like that of America, with a population to b 3
counted one day by tens of millions, a high place among
independent nations,ind the chief authority in the Southern
Hemisphere. The truth lies between these widely differ-
ing estimates. Australia will no doubt become year by
year a richer and more populous country ; it may even
take its place among Sovereign Powers, but it can never
be a rival to the North American continent. The climate
is too unirprinly sultry, the soil is too poor, the rivers are
too small and few, the want of water is too generally felt,
for the great island to be anything more than a desert en-
circled by a belt of cultivated coasts. The colonies which
the British have established extend over the most eligible
regions, and the shepherds and squatters have already
pushed inward to the borders of the uninhabitable desert.
There is no inexhaustible tract of prairies, no network of
rivers bearing the explorer onwar 1 into the very heart of
the continent. We are already able to see our destined
achievements ; the limit plaCed by nature is too firmly
fixed to be removed by any exercise of perseverance or
skill. However, Australia may be considered a groat coun-
try if compared with the capabilities of European States.
The "whole south eastern portion, from Moreton Bay to
Adelaide, a region many times larger than these islands,
is fit for human habitation ; then there is the Swan River
settlement on the west, and a great extent of tropical
country to the north. The two former of these districts
ales well able to stand alone ; they are attracting a stream
of emigrants, which is not likely to fail as long as the Bii-
tish isls and Germany continue prolific countries and the
colonies offer to the adventurous population the certaintyof
competence and the chance of wealth. But North Austra-
lia, placed within a few degrees of the equator, is still a de-
sert, and without the interference of the State is likely to
remain so for many years. Now, while we are all looking
for a place of deportation for our malefactors, and can find
no spot but the banks of Swan River, it is again asked that
Government should turn its attention to Port Essington
and the Gulf of Carpentaria. The question in its broadest
terms comes to this,—ls a tropical climate fit for a settle-
ment of white men ? Were the Spaniards and Dutch and
our own old English ignorant and reckless when they de-
scended eagerly on Mexico and Peru, the Antilles, and the
Spice Islands, leaving more temperate regions to be slowly
occupied by the victims of want or persecution at home?
Does a colony in the Tropics involve necessarily the labour,
and consequently the servitude, open or disguised, of an
inferior race ? Can we, who have abolished slavery and
pledged ourselves to the protection of aborigines every-
where, hope for success in the colonization of a coast in
such a latitude ?
The President of the Geographical Society, in his recent
address, insisted on the propriety of forming an establish-
ment at Port Essington, or some other point of the north-
ern coast. The natural qualities of this part of the con-
tinent appear to he such as would insure success to settlers,
if it were only situated under a more temperate climate.
The harbours are good, the gulf extends 500 miles into the
mainland, India, the Malay Archipelago, the Dutch colo-
nies, China, and Japan, are all so situated as to make the
northern port the emporium of Asiatic trade. The travels
on which the supporters of the scheme base their arguments
ara'chiefly of recent dat(h. The Government decided, some
time since, that an exploration of the interior of North
Australis should be undertaken, and the task was com-
mitted to Mr. Gregory, who had already distinguished
himself by a survey of Western Australia.. The expedition
marched southwards from the coast along the course of the
river Victoria. The first great discovery was that the salt
desert, whichmeets travellers moving inland from the south
and west of thecontinent, bounded also the habitable region
of the north. Is may now be considered as proved that
all the central portion of this vast continent is an unin-
habitable desert, probably the dried up bottom of a sea,
nd that henceforth all interchanges between our diffe-
rent colonies must take place either along what, in a gene-
ral sense, may be termed the coast ranges, or along the
sea. While, however, North Australia is thus cut off
from the other colonies, j use as they are, to some extent,
divided from each other, yet the report of the expedition
is most favourable as regards the fertility of the coast dis-
tricts. All the cou ,try between the Gulf of Carpentaria
and tbe most northern of the New South Wales settle-
ments was found to be more or less fertile. Though Go-
vernment had not as yet moved, the colonists have
columnbegun
to find-out the capabilities of the region, and the
of migration is pushing on steadily from Moreton Bay
northward, until it is now within 560 miles of the
V. _gulf. It
is stated that the ,banks of the navigable rivericto ria
were found perfectly healthy, and that recently our coun-
trymen were stationed there for months without the loss of
a man.
There certainly can be no doubt that this fine indented
northern caast must one day become studded with settle-
ments, if even the country inland be not colonised. Situ-
ated as it is in the track between the present colonies and
India, to, say, nothing of the mother country, it gems
pretty certain that the race which has founded Singapore,
Hongkong, an'd Aden will not be debarred. by a tropical
climate from establishing trading places in the moat suit-
able spots. Why, then, should not Government take the
first step, and make the way easier for those who are to
come afterwards ? One or more penal colonies on the
north coast would certainly do the rough work for the first
generation of settlers. As to the heat of the climate, we
think that, provided the convicts are not put to too bard
and too continuous labonr, these is nothing to be feared•
Certainly it would seem that where men will go for gain
they may be sent for punishment. The inducements to
occupy this rich territory are indeed considerable. It
is our only_ tropical land' whiCh is even moderately
healthy. Western Africa, from the thickness of its
vegetation, running down to the sea, and stagnating
in lagoons all along the coast, is notorious for its dead-
liness. The American mainland is not our own ; and there
i in no part of the earth where we could try the experiment