Page:The new British province of South Australia.djvu/102

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
OF THE COLONY.
83

been very limited, from the impossibility they have experienced of obtaining a sufficient supply of labour to work much in combination. One of the essentials of the plan upon which the new colony is to be founded, being such a concentration of people as will ensure a combination of labour, every profitable employment will be followed, for which the amount of capital at the disposal of the colonists shall suffice.

"Under the second head—Those Productions which now form the articles of export from Australia, are the following:—

"Wheat and Flour, which will at all times find a ready market in the Isle of France; and as Van Diemen'9 Land now supplies Sydney with large quantities of this commodity, it is reasonable to hope that this trade may also be followed by the new colony, as from the facility of production it will derive from an ample supply of labour, the cost of producing wheat may be expected to be lower there than at Van Diemen's Land.

"Fine Wool will also be an article of export to the mother- country, as from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land at the present moment. And here it should be remarked, that, although land is uniformly to be sold, instead of being given away, such arrangement is not meant to prevent the occupation of land for breeding purposes without purchase, only on the distinct understanding that it shall not be cultivated or used in any other way. As to this article, therefore, the inducements offered to the Sydney capitalists apply also to capitalists settling in the proposed Colony; with the advantage on the part of the latter of a greater facility of obtaining shepherds, wool-dressers, &c., than is at present possessed either in New South Wales or Van Diemen's Land. This consideration is of great importance, since a want of shepherds, by preventing a proper division of flocks, is, in those countries, a cause of great mortality among the sheep.