Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/13



consequence of the unexampled depression which has now for so long a time paralysed the colony of New South Wales, in common with the other Australian settlements, and the melancholy truth that few occupations can now be profitably carried on there; many persons in England have arrived at the conclusion that the state of Australia is quite hopeless.

Having made a visit to my native country, after a residence of five years in New South Wales, during which time I had been engaged, either in surveying for the Government a district beyond the limits of location, in the north-eastern part of the territory, or in farming pursuits, I found that many of my friends, who took an interest in the colony, were very desirous of knowing whether there was any truth in the statement, that the natural resources of that part of Australia, were not of a nature to admit of the colonists advantageously competing with other countries, in any one article of production.

As this notion seemed to be very prevalent among those who have suffered from their connection with New South Wales, I have been induced to write the following pages during my limited stay in England, in the hope that they might not prove altogether