Volume II Part 16 (1/2)

OPENINGS TO WEALTH IN NEW COLONIES.

The tide of emigration coming in from the older colonies is a certain sign of rapid success; those who arrive from these places are men who have done well in the first country of their adoption; but to this they had repaired when it was thinly inhabited, when land was of very low value and to be procured near the capital; there they have realized largely, but it appears to them that nearly all the good things have now been picked up; property has attained such a value that it rises but slowly, indeed is almost stationary in price; and the country is so largely stocked that they are driven to establish their sheep-stations at such a distance from the sea coast that the expense of the transport of their wool thither greatly detracts from its value. Under these circ.u.mstances once again do they emigrate, to repeat in a new land the operations which have before yielded them so lucrative a return; and, strong in past experience, they smile at the errors committed by the younger settlers, from which they reap many advantages.

ITS EFFECTS UPON ALL CLa.s.sES.

But time and intellect are all worth much more in Australia than they are in England, and everyone can realize upon his capital and speculate profitably upon his intelligence, activity, and strength; for all of these he gets paid, hence but few men are willing to follow professions.

Clergymen too often turn farmers and speculators, even if they do not altogether throw aside their sacred character. Medical men but rarely pursue their practice, when such remunerating fields of enterprise are laid open to them; soldiers abandon their calling; and the government officers are all virtually farmers and stock-owners.

This is to be expected, from the character of man. In a new colony everything increases rapidly in worth--a landed estate which can be bought in the early stages of its existence at a mere nominal price grows yearly in value without a penny being expended upon it; stock increases in a geometrical ratio, at little or no cost, for there is plenty of land to pasture them upon. Nothing of this kind either does or can take place in England; and when the settler finds how changed his prospects are, and how new means of acquiring wealth are opened to him, he too often devotes his every thought and energy to the one object; and so far will this pa.s.sion lead men that I have known an honourable member of council and leading magistrate in a colony take out a retail license, and add to his already vast wealth from the profits of a gin shop.

But as stock is that species of property from which the largest returns are realized, and that with the least labour, it is to this branch of industry that settlers generally direct their attention; indeed until plenty of stock is introduced into a new colony its success is wavering and uncertain, and its inhabitants are generally compelled to undergo a degree of poverty and privation which contrasts strangely with the affluence of the people occupying the more settled countries. The degree of care and attention which is bestowed upon the breeding of stock necessarily ensures both a constant supply of it and its rapid diffusion over all accessible portions of the continent.

It is extremely difficult to convey to a mind which has never contemplated the subject an idea of the rapid advance of stock stations over the continent of Australia; there is something about it which bears an almost fabulous character; and the same circ.u.mstance takes place with regard to the rise in the price of town and country lands. Those who have not witnessed such things can scarcely give credit to them. In Western Australia town land was bought for twenty-three pounds an acre in the month of December 1839; and in the month of February 1840, large importations of stock having taken place, the same land was sold for sixty pounds an acre. But in other colonies, where overland communication takes place, this would be regarded as a very small increase in price for a new colony; there are many instances in South Australia of people realizing, in less than two years, sums of money to the amount of from ten to twelve thousand pounds from the sale of town acres in the city of Adelaide.

RAPID SPREAD OF STOCK STATIONS.

To endeavour to give some idea of the rapid extension of stock stations over the face of the country I must begin by premising that farming stock somewhat more than double themselves in two years; or at the end of two years they occupy double the s.p.a.ce of territory; at the end of four years, four times; at the end of six years, eight times; at the end of eight years, sixteen times; and thus, at the end of ten years, thirty-two times the s.p.a.ce of country which was originally taken up by stock becomes occupied by civilized man.

Exactly in the same ratio as the amount of occupied territory increases so does the amount of wealth in the country advance, as well as the demand for labour; and the natural increase of population falling far short of this, and not supplying a sufficient number of persons to absorb the wealth which the country is capable of producing, a demand for emigration arises, and a stimulus to it is given by the ease with which wealth and comfort are acquired in the Australasian colonies.

COURSE OF THE OVERLANDERS THROUGH AUSTRALIA.

If the reader casts his eye upon a general map of Australia it will be an easy task to follow the march of stock for the last four years:

Port Phillip was occupied in 1836, Portland Bay in 1835, South Australia in December 1836.

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SOUTHERN AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

The first step taken by the Overlanders was the connexion of Port Phillip with Sydney, and they thus, as it were, established a great base line from which their subsequent operations could be carried on; at this period they did not however bear the name of Overlanders, which was only given to them after Adelaide had been reached in 1838.

EARLY ENTERPRISES OF THE OVERLANDERS.

The Overlanders had hitherto been occupied in merely pus.h.i.+ng their stock stations to different portions of the colony of New South Wales; but a new and fertile field for enterprise opened to them in the establishment of the colony of South Australia, which as before stated was in December 1836; and many an enterprising mind instantly turned thitherward with earnest longings which soon ripened into action. In November 1837, that is, in eleven months from the foundation of the new colony, several hardy adventurers had laid, matured, and commenced carrying into operation plans which some deemed insane when they heard of the amount of capital invested in so new an undertaking, but which were undertaken by the adventurers in full confidence in their own powers.

THEIR FIRST EXPEDITIONS TO ADELAIDE, AND TO THE WESTWARD OF PORT LINCOLN.

Two expeditions started almost at the same time for this new market. In February 1838 Mr. Hawdon moved from the Goulburn and Mr. Eyre from Port Phillip. In April 1838 Mr. Hawdon arrived in Adelaide and shortly afterwards was followed by Mr. Eyre, who had attempted to take a direct route from Port Phillip to Adelaide, but coming upon an impa.s.sable country he had been compelled to turn to the northward, and then to make it by the same route which Mr. Hawdon had pursued. Just eight years before this period a hardy party of explorers under Captain Sturt had first ventured in a whale-boat to descend a river traversing this unknown land. Rapidly had the fruits of this enterprise ripened to maturity; the river was now made a highway of commerce, a connecting link between two countries.

In the remaining portion of 1838 and in 1839 the energies of the Overlanders were fully employed in supplying South Australia with stock; and during this period several new and shorter lines of route were struck out, the last great improvement of this kind being made by the adventurous C. Bonney, Esquire, who connected Port Phillip with Adelaide by a direct road running nearly parallel to the coast, so that the portion of the continent of Australia which lies between Moreton Bay and Adelaide is now connected by a pa.s.sable route.

During 1839 it was felt however that the markets of South Australia no longer afforded such large profits; but Port Lincoln was then occupied and a new country opened, to which cattle and sheep were conveyed across Spencer's Gulf. This for a time afforded some employment to the Overlanders; but their spirits were secretly chafed by the thought that the limits of their career were attained. Several expeditions to the westward of Port Lincoln were undertaken, and in August 1839 Mr. Eyre, still anxious to open a new market, pushed as far to the westward as Denial Bay; but the journey to King George's Sound seemed so vast an undertaking that although such a scheme was often contemplated the hazard and risk of property appeared, even to a daring Overlander, to be too great.

Yet although none ventured, many an eager heart turned that way, and many a thoughtful face lighted up when a promising plan was unfolded.

Whilst the Overlanders were thus speculating upon the possibility of connecting the Eastern and Western portions of Australia by one great line of communication, the new settlements of South Australia and Port Phillip were making such rapid advances in prosperity as almost exceed belief.

The settlements of Swan River and King George's Sound, which had now been established nearly ten years, were truly in a most miserable condition.

So late as the month of September 1839, when I landed at King George's Sound to a.s.sume the situation of Government Resident there, the population had been in a state bordering upon want.

But in the lapse of years the mismanagement and other causes which had weighed down the settlers in Western Australia had been swept away; and in 1839 an ameliorated system began to be introduced, the energies and resources of the colony were allowed to unfold and develop themselves, and a period of colonial prosperity commenced which bids fair, if not again checked, to run as rapid and astonis.h.i.+ng a career as it has done in South Australia and Port Phillip.