Expeditions to South Australia | Page 7

Manning River on the other, including Wellington Valley
within its limits to the westward. Thus it will appear that the boundaries
of the located parts of the colony have been considerably enlarged, and
some fine districts of country included within them. In consequence of
its extent and increasing population, it has been found convenient to
divide it into counties, parishes, and townships; and indeed, every
measure of the Colonial Government of late years, has had for its object
to assimilate its internal arrangements as nearly as possible, to those of
the mother country. Whether we are to attribute the present flourishing
state of the colony to the beneficial influence of that system of
government which has been exercised over it for the last seven years it
is not for me to say. That the prosperity of a country depends, however,
in a great measure, on the wisdom of its legislature, is as undoubted, as
that within the period I have mentioned the colony of N. S. Wales has
risen unprecedentedly in importance and in wealth, and has advanced to
a state of improvement at which it could not have arrived had its
energies been cramped or its interests neglected.
ITS ADVANCES IN PROSPERITY.
There is a period in the history of every country, during which it will
appear to have been more prosperous than at any other. I allude not to
the period of great martial achievements, should any such adorn its
pages, but to that in which the enterprise of its merchants was roused
into action, and when all classes of its community seem to have put
forth their strength towards the attainment of wealth and power.
ERRONEOUS IMPRESSIONS.
In this eventful period the colony of New South Wales is already far

advanced. The conduct of its merchants is marked by the boldest
speculations and the most gigantic projects. Their storehouses are built
on the most magnificent scale, and with the best and most substantial
materials. Few persons in England have even a remote idea of its
present flourishing condition, or of the improvements that are daily
taking place both in its commerce and in its agriculture. I am aware that
many object to it as a place of residence, and I can easily enter into
their feelings from the recollection of what my own were before I
visited it. I cannot but remark, however, that I found my prejudices had
arisen from a natural objection to the character of a part of its
population; from the circumstance of its being a penal colony, and from
my total ignorance of its actual state, and not from any substantial or
permanent cause. On the contrary I speedily became convinced of the
exaggerated nature of the reports I had heard in England, on some of
the points just adverted to; nor did any thing fall under my observation
during a residence in it of more than six years to justify the opinion I
had been previously led to entertain of it. I embarked for New South
Wales, with strong prejudices against it: I left it with strong feelings in
its favour, and with a deep feeling of interest in its prosperity. It is a
pleasing task to me, therefore, to write of it thus, and to have it in my
power to contribute to the removal of any erroneous impressions with
regard to its condition at the present moment.
COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF SYDNEY.
I have already remarked, that I was not prepared for the scene that met
my view when I first saw Sydney. The fact was, I had not pictured to
myself; nor conceived from any thing that I had ever read or heard in
England, that so extensive a town could have been reared in that remote
region, in so brief a period as that which had elapsed since its
foundation. It is not, however, a distant or cursory glance that will give
the observer a just idea of the mercantile importance of this busy
capital. In order to form an accurate estimate of it, he should take a boat
and proceed from Sydney Cove to Darling Harbour. He would then be
satisfied, that it is not upon the first alone that Australian commerce has
raised its storehouse and wharfs, but that the whole extent of the eastern
shore of the last more capacious basin, is equally crowded with
warehouses, stores, dockyards, mills, and wharfs, the appearance and
solidity of which would do credit even to Liverpool. Where, thirty

years ago, the people flocked to the beach to hail an arrival, it is not
now unusual to see from thirty to forty vessels riding at anchor at one
time, collected there from every quarter of the globe. In 1832, one
hundred and fifty vessels entered the harbour of Port Jackson, from