demnifyhim for the expence of gathering it.
Perhaps, under any other circumstances, the effect of such an excess of produce, thrown on the markets of the colony, would have been to reduce prices so low as to occasion an indisposition, if not an inability to cultivate the following year, and famine might have followed in the train, and as the consequence of excessive production.
The regulations of the Governor in fixing the prices of produce at a rate which would repay with a profit the expence of production, has, to a great extent, prevented this misfortune, since the colony was capable of supplying itself. But the evils of an uncertain market have, nevertheless, been severely felt, and it is certainly more owing to these, than to either "the uncertainty of climate, or the carelessness of convict servants, that the colony has been under the necessity of importing grain from Van Diemen's Land, and even more lately from Valparaiso."[1]
- ↑ This introduction was written during the passage to the colony, in December 1823. If its principles required illustration or proof, none could be afforded, better than the state of the corn ,market in the colony since that period. For some months after the harvest of 1828, the price of wheat did not exceed 3s. 6d. or 4s. a bushel, and at that price it was most difficult to find a market for it. It is said, that some of the more distant settlers actually fed their hogs with it. It is at all events certain, that mach was wasted. About four or five months before the harvest of 1824, apprehensions of a scarcity began to be entertained, and in the course of six weeks, or two months, large quantities of wheat,
