Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/15

 precludes all possibility of its ever being made use of for the ordinary colonial productions, yet the time might arrive, in some future generation, when much of this kind of land might be checquered with plantations of rice, tobacco, indigo, cotton, sugar-cane, and mulberry trees.

I have divided this work into four parts. The first contains a description of the MacLeay river, and two smaller rivers, between that stream and the Clarence; these rivers being included in the district I was ordered to survey, I have been rather prolix in my details concerning the geological formation of the surrounding country, and its influence on the climate, soil, indigenous vegetation, and objects of culture, which I was able to see displayed, as I possessed a share in a station on the banks of the MacLeay, where we successfully cultivated a large tract of land for some years.

In the second part, I have described the river Hastings, and the Port Macquarie district, the Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed rivers, and the country in the vicinity of Moreton Bay and the Brisbane river.

The third part contains an inquiry into the causes of the depression, and monetary panic, which have so long afflicted the colony of New South Wales. I have also examined whether any future profit will attend the investment of capital in flocks and herds, when considered as only valuable for the exportable articles of tallow, wool, or hides; and have annexed