Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/187

 agricultural farms in New South Wales, (which were frequently sold, when I left the colony at less than one-tenth of the money that had been expended in their improvement alone,) situated on the banks or immediate vicinity of navigable rivers, and the present reduced rate of wages throughout that colony, I think I shall be able to shew, that the purchasers of farms thus advantageously situated, and which have been, moreover, selected in districts unvisited by long droughts, would be able to make a profit on their capital, even if the prices of wheat and maize should become as low as 3s. 4d. per bushel, or 26s. per quarter for wheat, and 1s. 9d. per bushel, or 14s. per quarter for maize; prices, it should be observed, which are lower than wheat and maize have yet fallen to, notwithstanding the long continued depressed state of the colony, and which are not more than half the average annual quotations of these kinds of grain during my residence in the colony.

Before attempting to prove this assertion, I will try to ascertain whether, at these low prices, it would be advantageous for merchants to purchase grain in Sydney for shipment to England? The maximum duty that can be charged on colonial grain, according to the "sliding scale," is five shillings a quarter on wheat, and two shillings and sixpence a, quarter on maize. As for other expenses I will assume those stated by Mr. Hutt.