"Hides, Tallow, and Horns, after a few years, may be expected to add to the list of colonial exports. Tobacco, although not an article of export from Australia,still, as its cultivation is encouraged in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, may be mentioned here. That it cannot for a considerable time be an article* of extensive export from the colonies already established in Australia, is evident from the fact that 200,000lbs. of tobacco were imported into New South Wales in 1 829, at a duty of 2s. per lb. The cultivation of this plant requires a constant and plentiful supply of labour, which it is clear cannot be enjoyed in a colony where the dispersion of the inhabitants is very great. It may, however, be regarded as one of the first articles to which the attention of capitalists in the new colony will be directed.
"Under the third head—Articles at present imported into the Australian Colonies, but which might be cultivated there advantageously with a combination of labour, are comprised all, or nearly all commodities, the produce of similar latitudes in the northern hemisphere. The most important of these is
"Wine. It has been ascertained that the soil and climate of New South Wales are very favourable to the cultivation of the grape; but in this, as in many other instances, the want of combination of labour has prevented the production of this article for exportation. A vineyard must have existed some years before a generous grape can be produced; and if the supply of labour should not equal the demand for the purposes of the vineyard in any one year of the series, the vineyard is destroyed, and the capital invested is lost[1].
- ↑ "How," says Mr. Blaxland, a great land-proprietor of New South Wales, "how should our settlers undertake to plant vineyards, when years must pass before any wine could be got?—years during which much labour must be employed
