1840 - Johnson, J. Pitts. Plain Truths, Told by a Traveller [New Zealand sections] - Sydney, p 34-59

[Image of page 34]

SYDNEY.

I quitted Swan River the latter end of January, to proceed to Sydney. I was accompanied by two gentlemen who had only been in the colony three weeks, and by three who had been there some years, one of whom was quitting it a beggar. Every person on board seemed to be loud in their complaints of the misery and wretchedness that every where prevailed in the colony. After a month's passage, we arrived in Sydney Harbour the latter end of February. The contrast is remarkably striking after quitting Swan River, where it is a very rare occurrence if you by any possibility see more than four vessels at any time in the roads; whereas on entering Sydney harbour, you may often see three or four coming out and as many going in at the same time. The harbour is allowed by all persons to be remarkably safe; you proceed up seven miles before you anchor off the town, and the whole way up, on both sides, are most excellent harbours, capable of anchoring vessels of almost any tonnage; and however heavy a gale may be, riding safely with a single anchor, entirely shut in from every breeze, and, however heavy the sea may be running in the stream or tideway up to Sydney, they are here as calm as in a mill-pond. The three principal bays, and the only places where

[Image of page 35]

vessels unload, and are entirely surrounded by wharfs, &c., are, Sydney Cove, Darling Harbour, and Cockle Bay. The first bay you come to, and just inside the head of the harbour on the north shore, is used as a quarantine ground, where many vessels have been unfortunately sent, --generally Scotch emigrant ships, seldom Irish or English, nor any convict vessels. It is to be accounted for from the large quantity of heating food given to the passengers and crew daily. Instead of meat and bread, flour, &c, they issue to them oatmeal, which, even on shore, where persons get plenty of vegetables to assist in carrying off this heating food, is excessively pernicious; and how much more so where it is impossible to get any vegetables for any person in the ship after the first few days, except potatoes and preserved vegetables; which latter have generally lost all their virtue, and are even then only to be procured by the steerage passengers at a most exorbitant price. Therefore I should recommend all persons who are going to any part of the world in the steerage, as far as their means will allow them, to lay in a stock of comforts, that, in addition to their allowance, they will not so much feel the hardships persons endure on first going to sea, particularly in the steerage. You can of course land any where about Sydney Harbour, but the general place is either the Dockyard, which is situated at the bottom of George-street, or the Government Jetty, at the bottom of Macquarie-place, and close to Government House. It is at the latter place where all the men-of-war boats come to, and the former the merchant vessels' boats; at the former also lie all the watermen's boats. It is no uncommon thing to see as many as 150 to 180 vessels of various descriptions in Sydney Harbour at a time. Steam-boats are seen going up the river to Parramatta, one of which is an iron boat, the property of Messrs. John Lord and Co.; steamers running to the Hunter's River and Port Macquarie twice a week; and a steamer running as fast as it

[Image of page 36]

possibly can to Hobart Town and Launceston, Van Dieman's Land, Port Philip, and Twofold Bay, on the southern, and eastern, coasts of New Holland, and under the jurisdiction of the Governor of New South Wales, -- and both going from and returning to Sydney: it is generally quite full of passengers and goods.

On the Hunter River is a place called Newcastle, from whence coals come in great abundance. They are of a very good description, and are delivered at your own house in Sydney, at from nineteen to twenty shillings per ton. Large quantities are annually shipped to the Indian market, it being the only article of export they have for that place, except old copper and a few horses; in exchange for which they receive sugar, rice, tea, silks, furniture, spices, wheat, molasses, preserves, &c. Cedar timber is a great article of export to England, and there are a great many small craft employed in nothing else than in running down to the MacLeay and bringing up large quantities of timber. These small craft are all colonial built, and are excessively handy and good sea-boats. It occupies a great many sawyers, who otherwise would have nothing to do, and would consequently be committing some crime to support themselves. I have heard from gentlemen who have been down there, that it is the most lawless place in the colony, and it is no uncommon thing to see timber which you have just rafted to go down the river, with another person's brand on it, and yours taken out, and this done while you were absent from it for a short time only, by some person who has been watching you. There is no magistrate there, and might gives right, consequently the strongest party generally comes off also the richest.

The town of Sydney is very well built, the houses are generally regular, especially those of late days, and the streets intersect each other at right angles. The roads

[Image of page 37]

are very good, and Macadamized. After the miserable dull spot of Swan River, any change must be for the better, especially such a town as Sydney, which appears to a person more like a large town in England, than a settlement in a bush, at a distance of 16,000 miles from Europe. At Swan River you never see any thing grander than a bullock or horse cart, whereas in Sydney, carriages, gigs, mail-coaches, and stages, rattle past you in almost endless variety, at every corner; the streets are crowded with well-dressed persons of both sexes, and the male part of the inhabitants have certainly the air of persons of business, at the same time their appearance denotes they are in a land of plenty. Some of the gentlemen's houses in the town and the outskirts of Sydney, are very elegant, and would not disgrace any part of England. They are generally handsomely furnished. Most of the merchants live a short distance out of town, many of them on the road toward Sydney Heads, at Wooloomooloo, or Rose Bay; others again on the road to Parramatta, Windsor, Liverpool, Newtown, &c. Rents in Sydney are very high; you pay as much as 12s. 6d. to 15s. per week, for a small house of three rooms and a kitchen. Your water you have to buy of men who carry it about the streets in carts, and sell it at a penny a bucket. Butchers' meat is generally about 5d. per lb.; tea, 2s.; sugar, 4d. to 6d.; potatoes, 1d. per lb. Vegetables are rather expensive; butter, 2s. 6d. per lb.; eggs, 2s. 6d. per doz.; cheese, colonial, 10d. per lb. The reason of vegetables, butter, and eggs, being so high priced in Sydney, is on account of the land in the neighbourhood of the town, being so much built over, and that which remains yet uncovered is not of a nature at all likely to sustain many head of cattle, and only suffices to support the milch cows that supply the town with milk and cream.

It may not here be inappropriate, while on the subject

[Image of page 38]

of New South Wales, to state some few particulars regarding the mode of punishment which has so much engrossed the attention of the legislature within the last few years. I allude to the defective system of the present transportation laws, which are, in my opinion, calculated to become an inducement rather than a preventive to further crime, in as much as the convicts are far better fed, and more comfortably clothed than the generality of the labouring classes in England or Ireland, the latter more especially. I would here remark that the word I have just made use of is unauthorised in general conversation in the penal colonies, and it is necessary to substitute that of government servants, or assigned servants, instead of convicts, so tenacious are these men of this degrading term, that should any of them hear it, the consequences are very often excessively unpleasant, as on account of, and in exchange for it, you not only receive the vilest abuse, but at times summary chastisement. By far the greater number of the convicts are distributed amongst the settlers as assigned servants. The masters, by their agreement with the government, are bound to supply these servants weekly with 10 1/2 pounds of meat, 10 1/2 pounds of flour, 7 ounces of sugar, (which is generally increased to a pound and a half a fortnight), and 2 ounces of salt, and a small quantity of soap: they also issue to them (but at their own option) a small quantity of tea and tobacco weekly--generally a quarter of a pound of each. They also are bound to find them in clothes, shoes and bedding. This is the most liberal allowance supplied in any part of the world. Refer to your parish allowances, and you will find their scale very much below that of the convict in the Australian colonies. This being the case, I ask my readers, whether the felon who has committed crimes of the blackest die is not better off than the honest man who struggles, in England and Ireland, in the coal

[Image of page 39]

mines, factories, potteries, &c. and can, by that means only, gain an actual subsistence?--and what more has the honest man? Why, I answer, the liberty of going into (the greatest curse to England) the gin shops, and calling himself free--a subject which very few of our English peasantry seem to understand, or are likely to profit by.

The better a man conducts himself, and the more attentive he is to the interests of his employer, the more liberal is of course his allowance of tea and tobacco-- and various other opportunities of benefiting himself-- as a man who is transported for seven years is forced by the law to serve four out of the seven to a master, or else in the employ of government, either of which must be without punishment, before he can obtain his ticket-of-leave, which ticket renders him free of any part of the colony, he may wish to reside in. Sydney, however, within the last few years, has been excepted, on account of the great influx of emigrants, out of whose hands the ticket-of-leave men from their being known in the colony, would take all the work, and as labourers would execute it much faster, and consequently earn higher wages from their being better able to bear the heat of the climate. A man who has fourteen years' sentence, has six years to serve, and men who have twenty-one, or life, have ten years to serve. When for misdemeanours committed in the colony, they are subjected to the lash, or to work in irons on the roads at the point of the bayonet, or re-transportation to the ultra penal settlements of Norfolk Island, the time they have so worked on the roads, or been re-transported as above, or for every fifty lashes they have received, six months are added in addition to their sentences. Persons who are transported for twenty-one years or life, after having had their tickets-of-leave some years without any stain on their characters, which has brought them before a magistrate, are emancipated, or receive a

[Image of page 40]

ticket which renders them perfectly free in the colony, but prevents them at the same time quitting it. This ticket of emancipation, like that of the leave, is tenable only so long as they conduct themselves with steadiness and respectability, but if they swerve only once from the right course, their detection is immediately followed by the loss of it. By the assignment laws, you must get the signatures of two magistrates as to capability of providing and finding employment for the servant for which you apply, and also a householder's signature as to your respectability. This is a mere pro-forma concern, but requisite to be done. For a man or woman who has just arrived in the colony, before they have been sent to a colonial person, should they be assigned to you, will cost you 1l.; otherwise a man may be procured for nothing, and a woman for 3s. 6d., the price of her passage from Parramatta by the steamer, to be paid to the constable who delivers her to you in Sydney. It is better, if you can, to get a servant from a ship prior to his or her visit to Hyde Park Barracks, or the Parramatta Factory, as, however depraved, and however so old offenders they may be, you have a better chance of keeping them in subjection than you have after their visiting these places, as they will dread the laws from their not knowing them; but should it on the contrary be the first crime a person has committed, and consequently the jail he or she was taken to on commitment, the only one they have entered, you have every chance of having procured a good servant, provided you treat them properly.

Samuel Terry, and many of the wealthy prisoners both in this and the sister colony of Van Dieman's Land, are emancipists, but the periods when the convicts realized such enormous properties have long since passed. At that time convicts were not under such great restraint as they are at present. Not very long ago a man could be

[Image of page 41]

assigned to his wife, and the wife to the husband, which is now put a stop to, as it was discovered that many of the large defaulters handed the money they had illegally obtained, over to their wives, who preceded them in their voyage to the colonies, and on the husband's arrival, claimed him as their assigned servant; in which case the man was of course under no more control than he was in England, with the exception of being obliged to obtain a pass from his wife to allow him to walk about.

The male assigned convict is at the mercy of the most summary laws; namely, flogging, imprisonment, solitary confinement, labour in irons, and transportation to Norfolk Island, besides the last resort of hanging: this, however, is only resorted to in the most desperate cases, such as murder, bush-ranging, rape, &c. Magistrates were a short time ago authorized to order as many lashes as they thought the case deserved; but, thanks to a more enlightened era, they are not at present authorized to order more than 50 at one time, to any offender.

To prove that the laws are carried on with vigour, I extract the following statistical account from the evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons, in November 1837, to enquire into the system of transportation, its efficacy as a punishment, "its influence on the moral state of the penal colonies, and how far it is susceptible of improvement." We there find that "New South Wales has received on an average for the last 5 years 3544 convicts annually, and in 1836, the whole convict population in the colony amounted to 25,254 men, and 2577 women, in all 27,831. The average number of convicts to Van Dieman's Land in the same period is 2078, and the convict population there amounted in 1835, to 16,968 persons, 2054 of whom were women. Norfolk Island, in 1837, contained upwards of 1200, most of them having been transported from New South Wales for

[Image of page 42]

offences committed there." "In Van Dieman's Land in 1836, there were about 50,000 lashes inflicted, and 15,000 summary convictions, though 15,000 was the whole number of convicts in the island. In New South Wales the number of summary convictions was 22,000, and the lashing of a frightful amount."

The convicts in the employ of government mostly work on the roads, and in the erection of public buildings. Those who are in irons always work on the roads: their condition is extremely wretched. Notwithstanding punishments are thus severe, and frequent, it does not appear that crime is at all on the decrease. Walk, of a morning, to the police office, and there see the awful number of cases daily for disposal before the magistrates. On Monday it is no uncommon thing to find upwards of two hundred cases of drunkenness for adjudication before the magistrates, and on ordinary days from fifty to sixty, independent of insolence to their masters and mistresses, by both male and female convicts, fighting, &c. besides the naturally frequent cases of burglary, pocket-picking, &c. which occur so frequently, that only a slight sketch of each is put into the papers. The criminal court is said to sit at the commencement of every three months, but it generally sits the greater portion of the year; and the session which commenced in April 1836, terminated only on the 30th June, in order that a fresh court might be summoned for the quarter commencing the first of July.

About two years ago, cattle-stealing was considered a capital punishment, but this law is happily put aside, the sentence being transportation for life, which in the case of an emigrant would be to Van Dieman's Land, and of a man who had been transported before, Norfolk Island.

This offence was carried some few years ago to so great an extent, that the larger proportion of salted meat sup-

[Image of page 43]

plied to the shipping, was procured by this means, and it was found necessary to make some severe examples. I was present at a trial for this offence, of a man and his five sons, named Deans, but commonly known by "The Lumpy Deans;" although this man (who was an emancipist) had a most beautiful farm on the Hawkesbury, and quite sufficient to keep his family in comfort and respectability, yet he encouraged his sons in the nefarious practice of robbing their neighbours: he was acquitted, but his sons were all sentenced to transportation for life; although the jury acquitted him, there cannot be a doubt on any person's mind, who heard the trial, that he himself was more guilty than his unfortunate sons.

From the vast number of cattle possessed by the various settlers, and the peculiar tenure under which the greatest portion of the grazing land is held, it is necessary for the settlers to allow their herds to spread themselves over a vast tract of country, and from its great extent and the large number of cattle, it is impossible that the herdsman, who ought to ride round them every day, can possibly say that he has seen the whole; and whereas from the great distance the cattle stations generally are from the residence of the proprietor, the cattle very often pass a week without being seen by the stock-keeper, and sometimes a month without being driven into the stock-yard; the cattle consequently become wild, and should any of them be stolen or lost, there is the greater difficulty of course in tracing them. This offence is now fast on the decrease.

I am happy to say, that bush-ranging is also declining. This offence was first brought on by the brutal conduct of many masters to their assigned servants; they having them flogged on every trifling occasion, and treating them much worse than the very dogs about the place. It seems to me a very great feature in favour of the convicts gene-

[Image of page 44]

rally, that there are not a considerably greater number of bushrangers than there really are; for from my own experience I can safely say, that I have seen the conduct of some of the masters so brutal, that were I placed in a similar situation to these unfortunates, I should feel myself very much inclined to have my revenge on some of the free brutes, and then fly to the bush, notwithstanding I knew it was certain death.

To prove the number of executions which take place annually in New South Wales, it is only necessary to refer to the statistical account above alluded to, wherein it appears that if the amount of crime and punishment were in the same ratio in England as in New South Wales, there would be 7,000 executions annually in the latter country, or 22 156/311 per day. According to the statement of the late attorney-general for Van Diemen's, who has thoroughly investigated the subject, not less than three-fourths are committed by offenders whose sentences of punishment have expired. I have myself seen seven men hung in one morning in Sydney, and have known as many as thirteen hung within one week.

The punishment to females who get intoxicated, rob, &c. is to send them to the factory, in which place they are separated into three classes: in the first are those who have arrived in the Colony, and have not been assigned, but who are returned to the Government not on account of any fault; in the second are those who are returned to Government or sentenced to a term of imprisonment for minor faults; and in the third are those who are returned to Government for desperate faults. The occupation of the first class is making convict clothing; that of the second cleaning the place, and the remainder of the time breaking stones; that of the third continued breaking stones; the last class have all their hair cut off, which I always thought a woman's greatest punishment; but

[Image of page 45]

having a female assigned servant, who had been some years in the colony, I threatened her, on account of her repeated drunkenness, to send her to the third class of the factory, (how or where she procured the spirits on which to get intoxicated I never could learn); she turned round to me very quietly, and said: "Well if you do! they can only cut my hair off, they can't pull it out by the roots, it will grow again." This anecdote will, I think, prove the inefficacy of the female convict laws.

In the factory is a nursery for the illegitimate offspring of these unfortunates, which is very often, nay, generally, tolerably well stocked with this rising generation, notwithstanding there is a penalty of 50l. on any person cohabiting with a female convict. Where there are young children, it is highly improper to have any convict servants about the premises, as they will indirectly, if not directly, which is sometimes the case, contaminate and corrupt the minds of young persons. Unfortunately, this has been but too often proved--they having caused the ruin of the young and virtuous daughters of respectable emigrants, and even been known, when not properly watched, to introduce young men at midnight into respectable boarding schools for young ladies!

These few remarks will, I think, prove most fully to my readers, the inefficacy of the present transportation laws, either as to the improvement of the morality of society in New South Wales, and par consequence Van Diemen's Land, or the reduction of crime. I will mention one instance, of many I could enumerate, of a person, who had committed a crime of the blackest dye, and who lay six weeks in an Irish jail, expecting every moment he would be hung on the following morning. I allude to a person who was transported from Dublin for administering cantharides to a female, who would not gratify his passion: he was tried and con-

[Image of page 46]

demned to die. After lying six weeks under sentence of death, his punishment was commuted to transportation for life; he was transported, and through the instrumentality of his friends, for he was highly connected, as soon as he arrived in the colony, he received a ticket-of-leave, and within twelve months after his landing he received his emancipation, and is now one of the most dissolute young men in Sydney. Is this honesty?--is it justice? Had he been a poor man, and yet escaped the gallows in England, he would have shared the same fate as other convicts in New South Wales.

There has been for some time a rumour current both in England and the Australian Colonies, that Her Majesty's ministers did not intend to send anymore convicts to New South Wales or Van Diemen's Land, the discontinuance of which system would be very severely felt in these Colonies, as it would create a very great dearth of labour, and the consequences would prove very fatal to the interests of the colonists generally, not only in there being no supply to meet the current demand for labour, but there would be of course no greater increase in the consumption of food, &c, and, moreover, fewer vessels would come to the port at any rate, for some time. My readers may naturally say, why there would be great call and opportunity for emigration. I answer, yes, but subjoin the fact, that the sums derivable from the sale and lease of lands are at present very inadequate to meet the amount that would be required to send to the colonies a sufficient supply of free labourers, shepherds, &c. to prevent an almost general stoppage of all agricultural pursuits. The only monies that can be expended in emigration are those procured as above stated. I am very well convinced in my own mind, that many persons would prefer convict to free labour, and that the latter has very much lowered the former in general estimation, from their being

[Image of page 47]

able to manage a prisoner much more summarily than they can a free man.

I wish to say a few words on another very important feature in the history of these Australian Colonies, namely emigration. I allude particularly to the system of female emigration, carried on some five or six years ago. The chief error, it appears to me, in sending out these unfortunate young women, was the very small exertions that were, comparatively speaking, used to ascertain their real characters; inasmuch as a great many very loose and immoral women were put on board these vessels to populate the Australian Colonies; and how have they populated them? A walk up George Street, Sydney, in the dusk of the evening, or a few minutes in the theatre, and its neighbourhood, will, I think, clearly demonstrate. Many of the young persons thus sent out, have been of highly respectable connexions, but through misfortunes in business have become reduced, and having given their daughters such educations as they expected would befit them for that station in life they anticipated them to hold, these young females were incapacitated to take menial situations in a family in England; and as the mother country was, and is, overwhelmed with every description of persons, they could not expect very readily to procure them situations as governesses, and from the highly-coloured accounts they had heard of the scarcity of the female sex in New Holland, and the opportunities there were for a young person of good education and moral habits settling comfortably, (I allude to marriage,) they, the parents, naturally anxious for their children's welfare, risked them on board an emigrant ship, nothing doubting that the character of every person who was sent out by the committee, would be fully and thoroughly investigated, and that, if it possibly could be helped, no impure or immoral person would be permitted on board the

[Image of page 48]

several ships. Let the conscience of the person who was paid by the committee to enquire into their characters answer how far this was thoroughly gone into.

As a specimen, I will name one ship that quitted England in May, 1834, and arrived in Van Diemen's Land; on board of which vessel were shipped two hundred and seventy-five females, several of them girls of loose habits, selected from the parishes, out of which number, upwards of fifty were decidedly bad characters! The boatswain of this vessel boasted of having slept with one hundred of them; and the superintendent has been obliged to get out of her own bed, and literally drag the girls from out of the sailors' beds, which were in the topgallant forecastle. And these women--these dregs of society--were classed and sent out in the same vessel, and had perhaps part of the same bed with, a virtuous, prudent, and moral girl, who, prior to this had perhaps never even heard of such awful scenes of depravity! Look at the vessels named Layton, David Scott, and Red Rover, which carried similar descriptions of cargoes to Sydney. It is a perfectly notorious thing, that the streets of Sydney are entirely stocked of an evening by women who came out in these vessels; and I myself have heard young men ask them, when they were accosted by them, "Are you a Layton ?--David Scott?--or Red Rover?"

Unless a superintendent be particularly careful, and devote his time and attention to the selection, it is quite impossible to prevent immorality creeping in amongst them, and when once in, it can never be eradicated, but keeps spreading as the most virulent disease.

I am not single in my opinion; it is admitted by every colonist, that the system of emigration pursued as above, was wrong in every respect. Dr. Lang, of the Scotch Kirk, Sydney, who has thoroughly investigated and devoted much of his time to this important subject, has severely

[Image of page 49]

blamed it in a pamphlet which he published some time since.

The system at present pursued, if properly conducted, is fraught with a great deal of intrinsic good, both to the parent country and its offspring. They take out labourers and their families, and introduce only a few females, who are single (except those who have their parents on board), amongst each cargo. These it is necessary should be known to some family going in the ship, under whose controul they are during the passage, and with whom they can reside in the colony after their landing, until they can procure situations. I should remark, that a great many of the emigrants who went out are well married, some of them remarkably so.

There are a great many young men of liberal education whose friends have paid their passage-money out there, and given them numerous letters of introduction, expecting them to procure situations as clerks, &c. They arrive--present their letters of introduction--which are opened and glanced over--and the bearers may have the good luck of being asked to dinner, and on parting, told, "We shall be very happy to hear of your success when you procure a situation; but really we ourselves are quite full." Such is the general fate of letters of introduction. Letter after letter is presented; and still no situation even in perspective. The little money they took out with them is expended; their watch, &c, most probably sold; and if they have the good luck to get shopman to a grocer or linen-draper, they think themselves well off. And so they really are, considering the number of this highly useful class out of employment, and many of them glad to earn a trifle a-day, as labourers, on the wharfs. Clerks are so plentiful in Sydney, that in a letter I saw written by a gentleman there, in answer to an enquiry from a friend, if he wanted such assistance from England,

[Image of page 50]

he stated, they might be procured by the hundred at about 50l. per annum -- a sum not sufficient to pay for their board and lodging. But, to the engineer, printer, carpenter, stonemason, bricklayer, plumber, painter, jeweller, coach-smith, wheelwright, sawyer, and, indeed, every description of business and trade, provided they be sober, honest, and industrious men, Sydney holds out blooming prospects, --plenty of employment at very liberal wages, and constant work. One more word with regard to clerks. It is awful to see the number of young men of this class, who, notwithstanding the endless misery robbery entails upon them, defaulters to their employers, --even after the difficulty many of them have had in procuring situations, --lawyers' clerks, and linen-drapers' shopmen, form a very numerous class amongst the convicts from England.

One cause why so many clerks are out of employment is, that a great many of the minor government situations are filled by convicts, to the great injury generally of the emigrants.

I would recommend emigrants to take out a sufficient supply of clothing to last two or three years, and such clothing as they wear in England; for however warm the climate is in summer, they will feel the comfort of warm clothing in the month of June. Woollen clothing is not only very expensive, but very indifferent. The tailors charge 2l. 10s. for cloth trowsers; waistcoats, 1l. 5s.; and coats from 6l. to 7l. Under-clothing is also very expensive.

Land in the Australian Colonies is put up to auction at the minimum price of 12s. per acre, for a square mile, which contains 640 acres; and persons may bid as high as they like. For some favoured parts of the country I have known gentlemen bid as high as 2l. 10s. and 3l. per acre. A deposit is requisite to be paid down at the time of purchasing, and the residue within one month from

[Image of page 51]

the day of sale: if the amount be not paid within that time, the deposit is forfeited and the land is again put up at the next sale. These sales take place once in every month. Land is also put up to lease at the rate of 1l. for every square mile per annum. The leases only hold good twelve months; and in this case also the land is often run up very high by the proprietors of the land at the time. In your lease you are bound not to fell any more timber than is actually necessary for the erection of a hut for your men, and stockyard for your cattle. You are not allowed to break up ground for tillage; and only sufficient for a garden to supply your men with vegetables. It would not answer the purpose of any settler to break up the land for tillage, even supposing he were allowed by his agreement, inasmuch as the land may, the succeeding year, be leased to some other person, or perhaps sold: in either case, the labour he had bestowed upon it would go for nought.

In taking possession of a cattle-run, it is necessary that the cattle should at first be herded, every day, for a short time, then, every two or three days for some time longer, and after that, regularly every week; as without this precaution they are liable to be stolen, or to stray away: in either case great difficulty in tracing them would be the consequence. It is also the duty of the overseer to send the stock-keepers out every day on horseback, to sight as many of the cattle as they possibly can, and to take different routes every day. By this plan, should any cattle not be seen in three or four days, you may naturally conclude they are either stolen or strayed. At each cattle station it is customary to have an overseer, and two stock-keepers, with two horses for their use. These animals very soon get accustomed to the run, and also to cattle-hunting; which they seem to enjoy as much as the person who rides them: they will of their own

[Image of page 52]

accord head the cattle when they see they are going in a direction from the station. The stock-keepers are each armed with a stout whip, something of the appearance of a French postilion's, very short in the handle, and very long in the lash, which enables them to make sufficient noise to frighten the cattle. The sole amusement of these men in the bush, independent of their business, is hunting the kangaroo and native dog for their skins, which they barter away with the Jew hawkers, who periodically come round the country. In the choice of a cattle run, it is necessary to select some place where there is a river, on the banks of which the cattle will feed; --if possible, a piece of land on the banks of a river, where a brook or rivulet branches out from, and acts as a barrier on, one side, as the river does on the other; as long as there is any food to be procured, the cattle are sure not to leave such a spot as this.

A sheep station is managed in a somewhat similar manner. The number of persons employed about this is five, consisting of an overseer, a watchman, and three shepherds. The flocks are three generally; two ewe flocks and a wether flock; the two former containing about three hundred each, and the latter about four hundred. It is the duty of the watchman to shift the three sheepfolds every day, and to guard the sheep against the ravages of the native dog, which, unfortunately, abounds here. Most of the land let on lease to the various settlers, is out of the limits of the colony. Some time ago there was an agreement made by about six gentlemen, who wanted some land in a certain district, not to give more than a certain amount per acre, and after they had procured it, to divide it amongst them. They got the land at about the rate they had agreed to pay. The government discovered it some short time afterwards, made the purchase money already paid forfeited, and brought actions against the

[Image of page 53]

whole of them, in which actions the government obtained a verdict with damages.

There is a very great lack of good shepherds in the colony, which are more particularly requisite here, as the settlers, if they do know any thing about the diseases of sheep, are many of them two or three hundred miles from their various stations, and, consequently, are unable to visit them above once or twice per annum, and in the interim their flocks may be reduced considerably in number from disease.

From the great distance many of the flocks are from the capital, it would incur so heavy an expence, and so great a loss in the weight of the sheep, that the settlers, instead of sending their wethers to market at two years old, keep them for the sake of the wool, and only kill them when there is actual necessity for it to supply the men with meat. Sheep vary very much in their price in New South Wales. In August 1836, when Mr. Potter Macqueen's sheep were sold, some of them realized as much as seventy shillings per head; and in the early part of last year, when the flocks of Mr. Samuel Terry were sold, few of them realized forty shillings. This is entirely owing to the depreciation in the price of wool.

In January 1836, wools realized in England the most enormous prices, particularly Australian wools; whereas when the cargoes arrived in England, which were shipped from Sydney in January 1837, the prices had so much fallen, that many of the shipments did not realize the amount paid for them by the merchant in Sydney, leaving them losers of the expences of repacking, shipping, charges, freight, and interest of money from the time of purchase to that of sale. When the high prices reigned, in 1836, many persons in Sydney thought they could not fail, and thus speculated considerably to their own detri-

[Image of page 54]

ment. Cattle average generally about 10l. Horses may be purchased very reasonably in the interior, but you cannot purchase a decent hack in the town under from 35l. to 70l. There are several races every year in various parts of the country; those of Sydney and Parramatta are the most celebrated.

The generality of horses that run at the races are either bred in the colony from thorough-bred imported horses, or are themselves thorough-bred imported horses. A person by the name of Charles Smith, a Sydney butcher and emancipist, owns by far the greatest number of thorough-bred animals of any man on the turf. He was banished England for being a highwayman on Hounslow Heath. He carries off nearly all the prizes at the Sydney and Parramatta Races, and wins most of the steeplechases. There are two or three packs of fox-hounds in the colony. One pack, belonging to the above-mentioned Charles Smith, throw off generally in the neighbourhood of Sydney three times per week during the season. The native dog is substituted for the fox, and generally proves most excellent sport. The old race-course was a most eligible piece of ground, but the new Sydney racecourse is, without exception, nearly the heaviest patch of land I have seen in the Australian colonies; it is distant about three miles from the town of Sydney, on the road to the far-famed Botany Bay. Apropos, there is at Botany Bay a very coarse cloth manufactory; it is termed Parramatta cloth, and is solely used for convicts' clothing; it is manufactured by a Mr. Simeon Lord, and is very cheap.

The natives of New South Wales are generally of the same emaciated appearance as the other natives I have met with on the various parts of the coast, but from their addiction to drinking, smoking, &c, they are far more squalid and wretched. They are not permitted to enter Sydney, or indeed any of the principal towns, without

[Image of page 55]

being in some degree clothed, consequently the sight of them in this respect is not so disgusting by any means as in Swan River, Albany, and King George's Sound. The natives, in Sydney, beg money and clothes during the whole of the morning and forenoon; early in the afternoon they club their money together to purchase grog and tobacco. Their grog, or bull, as it is termed, is a small quantity of boiling water put into a cask, out of which all the spirits have been drawn, or at any rate only leaving the dirt at the bottom. This, being left in some days, becomes, by being rolled about, equally strong as the spirit itself originally was; adding to this, the drainings of the various glasses of gin, rum, brandy, wine, beer, &c, when all are mixed together, they form any thing but an agreeable beverage, and such as would only be drunk by an aboriginal inhabitant of New South Wales.

This vile compound is sold by the publicans to these unfortunate beings at a very low price, and very often by the bucket-full, so that the miserable wretches, by night, are in a beastly state of intoxication; the consequence of which is, the black gentlemen begin thrashing the black ladies; the ladies, assisted by their offspring, return the compliment with interest, and a general melee ensues. The women and children are not a whit more abstemious than the men with regard to their use of bull and tobacco. The most riotous are then taken to the station-house, and in the morning before a magistrate, when they are either sent to the stocks or the treadmill, the latter of which they prefer, as they are there not exposed to the public gaze, particularly that of their brother dingies, which they do not at all like, as these fellows immediately commence jeering them for being so stupid as to commit themselves so far as to allow the police an opportunity of taking them; as they, the jeerers, were themselves quite as drunk, but had more savez than to run against a constable.

[Image of page 56]

Some few years ago, a great many of these unfortunate beings were killed by the convicts in the interior, in order to enable these fellows to get hold of their gins or wives, but as the crime of shooting a native has been of late made a capital punishment, it is to be hoped that this awful crime will be, in some measure, if not entirely, put a stop to. By a recent Sydney paper, I perceive that four convicts had been hung one morning for killing the natives.

The roads in New South Wales, particularly those in the neighbourhood of Sydney, are extremely good. This is one advantage that a convict colony has over a free one--the beauty of the roads, from the supply they have of labour at a mere trifle of expense; whereas in a free country you have to pay your labourers high wages. The road from Sydney to Parramatta is very good indeed; this town is distant about fifteen miles from the capital; coaches run there several times a-day. You can also go by steam up the river; and I understand that a railroad is in contemplation between these two towns, which will of course be a vast improvement; and persons may go by that means from one town to the other in three quarters of an hour. The whole line of road, on both sides, is ornamented with gentlemen's houses.

The land on this road sells and lets at very high prices. The town of Parramatta is very pleasing, but the houses in general do not exceed one story. The governor has a residence here, and there are barracks. The town is rather straggling. The factory is situated here. Close to the quay where the steam-boats take in and discharge their passengers, is a barrack for prisoners, who are, for misconduct, working on the roads; they are commonly denominated "the canary-birds," so called from their dresses being yellow, as a mark of disgrace. To enter into a minute description of the whole of the

[Image of page 57]

colony of New South Wales, would be a work of some considerable time; I shall therefore on that head merely say to my reader that the land has answered, with very few exceptions, the most sanguine expectations that have been formed by those who have gone out to till it; and with the exception of its being liable to be visited, unfortunately, often by a drought, there is not perhaps in the world a climate by nature more adapted for the health of mankind in general, and the rearing of every description of domestic animals, than is the climate of the southern part of New Holland.

A few hints to emigrants who are going out to the Australian colonies to settle, may not be amiss before closing this sketch; and if my humble endeavours to point out with perspicuity the line they should adopt, should be of any avail, my time will be well repaid. I should by all means recommend persons going out, not to burthen themselves with household furniture, as bedsteads, &c; as they are to be procured at a very slight expense greater than in England, and moreover you are very likely in taking them out, to have many of the chairs, &c. broken, independent of the heavy amount of freight, which varies from 5l. to 6l. per ton; added to which, the possibility of no house being erected on the grant you are to occupy, and having either to pay store-rent in Sydney, or after taking your furniture into the interior, having to leave it in the open air under trees, until you have a place erected in which to stow it. Feather beds, horse-hair mattrasses and pillows, together with cooking utensils, clothing, linen, crockery, glass, and any plate you require, I should by all means recommend you to take out with you. Also take out a good fowling-piece or two, and two or three muskets, as you may perhaps, sooner or later,

[Image of page 58]

have occasion for the use of them. Your carts you can procure in the colony, as also your cart-harness, but your own saddle by all means do not go without. Waste as little time and money in the town as possible, as you will find you will require as much of both as you can possibly scrape together; time is money, as soon as you have bought your sheep, whose wool, of course, must be your chief income, into which source all your other streams of wealth will run. To a young single man who will for a few years quit society and give up his life to the bush, the prospect is most brilliant, provided he can command about 1000l. Let him lay out, say 750l. in the purchase of some sheep, say at 40s. per head, by which means he would have a flock of about 375 sheep; and as sheep are allowed by general opinion to double their number, independent of ram lambs, in two years and a half, in the course of five years, he would have 1500 ewes, which at an average of 2l. each, would render a person worth 3000l., besides his wethers and annual crops of wool. Cattle take a much longer time in doubling their number, consequently sheep are by far the most profitable speculation. The only difficulty which presents itself is the insufficient supply of labour, but this hindrance may be obviated by having your shepherd sent you from England, and by treating him well, you might depend upon his remaining and attending thoroughly to your flocks. I would by all means recommend any person who has free shepherds, not to introduce them at all amongst convicts, as by keeping them away from these characters, you may consider that their intentions towards you will not be contaminated by any collision with these unfortunate men. Persons going out had better content themselves with a log-hut the first winter, than attempt to put up any house, as by that means they will have plenty of time to erect comfortable buildings for their stock, and

[Image of page 59]

to get sufficient grain in to meet the demands of the family for the next year. By all means do not forget your garden, as without it you will find yourselves very badly off. Hay cut in the morning, must be carried the same afternoon, or else early the following day, as soon as the dew is off, for, if left beyond that time, you will find it dried up and good for nothing. A great deal of the wheat is not put into the ground until June, and sometimes even as late as the first week in August, and reaped in December, generally about Christmas day.

I would mention a very pleasant walk and drive there is in Sydney, called the Government Domain; also the same in Parramatta. They were planned by Mrs. Macquarie, the wife of Governor Macquarie, and certainly do infinite credit to the taste and judgment of that amiable lady.