The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-09-19 00:00:00

TIE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

VAN DIEMAN'S LAND.

We have already published a number of particulars con-
nected with the Australian colonies extracted from the
evidence given before the Colonisation Committee of the
House of Lords. We now add many interesting details
respecting Van Dieman's Land.

The population of this colony is scattered, large grants
of land having originally been made ; and the dispropor-
tion of the sexes is greater than in any of the other Aus-
tralian settlements. In 1845 the land in cultivation was
140,949 acres. In the preceding year the number of
sheep was 1,145,089 ; and in 1846 the imports were
£561,000, and the exports £582,000, of which latter sum
£150,000 consisted of grain shipped for the most part to
New South Wales, the quantity sent to England not hav-
ing exceeded £lO,OOO. The climate is very beautiful and
the land fertile, there being a large quantity of alluvial
soil on the banks of the rivers, which is particularly fa-
vourable for agricultural purposes. The general charac-
teristic of the island, however, is that of a densely wooded
mountainous country, and the population occupy a kind
of belt of country, running from north to south, pursuing
the great valleys and watercourses. Although the pro-
duction of wheat is large, the colony is not likely to export
much grain to England, owing to its liability to damage
on the long voyage. The shipment in 1846 was merely
the consequence of the unexampled depreciation of all
kinds of Australian produce, the price having fallen as low
as 2s. 6d. per bushel, and a great quantity of what was
sent in that instance became damaged. The following
table will show the rate of production of the soil on a ge-
neral average :

15 bushels.
9i ~
18 I,

Wheat, per acre
Oats, „
Barley „
Peas „
Beans „
Potatoes „
Turnips „ „

Owing to the low prices prevalent during the last few
years, many people who used to grow grain have given it
up and turned their attention to pasture land, but the im-
pression still seems to be that the prosperity of Van Die-
men's Land must depend in a great measure upon grow-
ing wheat for New South Wales, where the production of
wool is the most profitable occupation. Every increase of
emigration to New South Wales by creating a demand for
breadstuffs will therefore act beneficially upon Van Die-
man's Land ; and as there is a vast amount of agricultural
land available at low prices in the latter colony, the pros-
perity of both would advance together. In this as in all
the Australian settlements the conveyance of land between
individuals is encumbered with all the expenses and com-
plications of the English system, and this in the face of
the fact that for the Crown grants in South Australia a
very short document has been adopted, prepared by a
London conveyancer, which is held to convey in about
eight or ten lines everything that can be conveyed in fee
simple. The complaint put forward by the colonists re-
garding the inconvenience of the old system, however, is
in opposition to the opinion of the lawyers."
In Van Dieman's Land the number of bushels of wheat
grown per individual is 13. In South Australia it is also
13, and in New South Wales it is only six. The land in
cultivation in the three colonies averages 1 1-sth acres per
individual, and the present general total of live stock
would give, it is estimated, 40 sheep and six or seven
horned cattle for every man, woman, and child.
One principal point on which the various witnesses lay
stress in describing the urgent necessity for emigration, is
the fact that under the high wages caused by the insuffi-
cient supply of labour, it is the policy of employers to en-
courage demoralisation on the part of their servants, since
it is not merely that the present system of exorbitant wages
compels them to pass over acts of insubordination and mis-
conduct from the difficulty of replacing those whom they
might discharge. but they feel that it is not their interest
that the servant should save his earnings, and by expend-
ing them on a small farm not only withdraw his own la-
bour from the market but also become a competitor with
themselves for the labour of others. " I have heard," says
one witness, " colonial proprietors expressing their grati-
fication again and again at the fact of their shepherds or
other hired servants spending their earnings, perhaps 440
or £5O at a time in the public-house; for they knew that
the men would in all such cases be ready to hire themselves
again on the same terms as before."