Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/33

 become discontented and miserable. Several of this class have re-emigrated to Valparaiso. Men with families are very often worse off, and, as long as the present mode of dealing with squatters remains in force, it is impossible that married men can find accommodation and employment, in any numbers, on sheep or cattle stations, as men have no fancy for laying out money in improving government land. At Sydney, where this evil has been felt more than at Melbourne, a committee of the Legislative Council examined many witnesses on the subject, and the result of their inquiries was to establish the facts which I have stated above.

The exports from the Port Phillip district in the year ending 31st July, 1843, being the close of the wool season of 1842–43, amounted to £232,602 in value, made up of the following items:—