Page:The Condition and Resources of New South Wales.djvu/9

7 Relief Fund, to the erection of that beautiful statue of the late Prince Consort, and, later still, to the unfortunate sufferers by the late severe wrecks on our coast, and to the many other almost daily objects of local charity, and tell me, do these bear any evidence of depression? If they do, it is an evidence that does the highest credit to the good feeling of the people of this colony—an evidence that their charities and public subscriptions are not restricted by fortuitous circumstances, nor circumscribed by straitened means, but are regulated upon the principle of a large-hearted benevolence, which, demanding the exercise of no small amount of self-abnegation, can proceed from no other motives than those of the warmest philanthropy.

But I am told that property is being sold for a third of its value; that mortgagees are foreclosing in all directions, to the utter ruin of the unfortunate mortgagors. Well, it may be so, and it has been so from time immemorial; and it will be so again. Individuals suffer, but the community at large is benefited. But let me ask how this value is to be arrived at. This is an important consideration in working out this question.

Who does not recollect the extravagant competition for land, at the Government sales, some eight or ten years ago; and that still more extravagant demand made, aye, and obtained, too, by private speculators. Why, no one was satisfied unless he had a suburban residence, and enjoyed