intention of attributing to the government, whether home or colonial, any feeling but that of zeal for the welfare of the colony. Much of what follows was written to divert the solitude of an Australian hut, and possibly, in such a situation, some things may have appeared of an importance to which they are not entitled, and have been treated of with a detail which may prove wearisome to the general reader. Nor is the author vain enough to suppose, that mixing in the same pursuits with the majority of settlers, affected by the same interests, and having in view the same ends, he has escaped those prejudices from which no class is entirely exempt. All that he can say with confidence is, that he has not knowingly either misrepresented or exaggerated. Whether he has succeeded in attaining the end which he has proposed to himself, will be best decided by his brother colonists. Until their verdict be known, the British public must be content to take the work on trust, or at best to judge of its truth by the intrinsic evidence it may contain. Dublin, 15th November, 1844. CONTENTS. Town and Neighbourhood of Melbourne-River Yarra-Soil of the Country in general-Division of it into four qualities-Command of Water- Climate-Hot Winds-Salubrity-Meteorological Tables-Comparison with Climate of Madeira, Rome, &c.-Productions. Population-Exports and other Statistics-Exports and Revenue of South Australia-Boiling down Sheep-Export of Tallow-Salt Beef-Horses- Agriculture-Value of the Colonial Market for Grain-Geelong-Prospects of Emigrants-Classes likely to succeed and the contrary - Colonial Society-Labourin Classes-Old Hands and Emigrants-State of Crime- New Legislative Council-Exclusion of the Pastoral Interest from the Exercise of the Elective Franchise-Their Importance-Impossibility of Port Phillip's being adequately represented at Sydney-Universal desire of Separation from Sydney-Statement of the Revenue and Expenditure of Port Phillip-First Session of Legislative Council-Its Legislation and General Demeanour-District Councils-Corporation of Melbourne 52 6 PRESENT STATE AND PROSPECTS OF PORT PHILLIP. CHAPTER I. TOWN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MELBOURNE-RIVER YARRA-SOIL OF THE COUNTRY IN GENERAL-DIVISION OF IT INTO FOUR QUALITIES-COMMAND OF WATER-CLIMATE-HOT WINDS-SALUBRITY-METEOROLOGICAL TABLES-COMPARISON WITH CLIMATE OF MADEIRA, ROME, ETC.-PRO DUCTIONS. It is not until a man has seen the colonies of England that he can duly estimate her strength and resources, or appreciate the untiring energy of her sons, whose bloodless conquests have extended the empire of civilization to the furthest quarters of the globe. It has been said that Paris is France. But how much more noble is the boast of the Englishman, that England is not circumscribed by the walls of her capital, nor even by the four seas that gird her cliffs, but that wherever, under her red-cross flag, her laws are observed, her institutions retained, and her memory cherished, there England does in fact exist. That, like the banyan tree of India, she sends forth shoots through which the sap B of the old tree still circulates, but which themselves presently take root, becoming in time sources of strength and nourishment to the parent stem. Nothing so forcibly struck me on my arrival at Port Phillip, in 1840, as the state of advancement in civilization already attained by the colony. I had frequently to pause in order to realize the fact, that where I saw a civilized town of considerable extent, supplied with most of the comforts and luxuries of life, there, only four years before, had been an untrodden wild; that where I found the bustle and excitement of business, and din of trade, so short a time before, the echoes had only been awakened by the hum of insects, or the cry of the savage; that the tame, quiet-looking teams of horses and oxen were the immediate successors of the wild dog and kangaroo, and that the substantial brick houses by which I was surrounded, had so lately superseded the rude mi-mis* of the native. But the wonder did not stop here; for still more astonishing was it to see the comfortable villas, with their smiling gardens and thriving crops, in the neighbourhood of the town; and to reflect that not only had all this been done within such a limited space of time, but that in addition to this, a territory, superior in extent to Ireland, had been explored, occupied, and, in a great measure, stocked with sheep and cattle, during this period, while roads and lines of communication had been established, not * The mi-mi is a kind of break-weather, formed of branches of trees and bark, which the natives use instead of buildings of any kind. |