Page:Transportation and colonization.djvu/246

 the charges of immigration, amounting to £364,545. 2s. 7d.

It is altogether foreign to my purpose to inquire whether the astonishing and unparalleled prosperity which this state of things indicates might not be greatly increased by a more judicious and economical expenditure of the colonial funds than has hitherto been exemplified, or is at present contemplated by the colonial legislature. It is equally foreign to my purpose to inquire whether a population of 80,000 souls, of whom 20,000 are virtually in a state of slavery to the rest of the community, can require an expenditure of £240,000 per annum, or £3 a head, for very indifferent government. It is not less foreign to my purpose to inquire whether, in a third or fourth-rate British colony, ([ mean in regard to the amount of its free population,) and in a climate unequalled for its salubrity, there can be any necessity for such enormous salaries as are still given to the principal officers of the colony;—salaries, which, varying as they do from £1200 to £5000 a year, are not only exceedingly disproportioned to the particular services rendered, but calculated to generate a taste for extravagant expenditure, of the worst possible example to the colony. These questions, I repeat, are foreign to my purpose; but whenever the colonial govern-