Having such discouragements to struggle with, as well as the competition of the soil and climate of Van Diemen's Land, the superiority of which, for grain crops, has of
imported from Van Diemen's Land, sold at 20s. and 21s. a bushel.
The government who have for some time obtained supplies by tender, were now loudly complained of for not paying a higher price, and supporting the previous artificial system. It is considered in the colony, that 3s. 6d. or 4s. is, under few circumstances, a remunerating price, but though, by paying a higher price than it was possible to procure it for by tender, the price of wheat might have been supported and less waste have taken place. Still, as long as the commissariat did not purchase all the surplus produce of each cultivator, not disposable in the market, the evil could only be imperfectly and temporarily remedied.
The colony has certainly reached that degree of advancement, and the extent of cleared and cultivated land in proportion to the number of inhabitants is so considerable, that the considerations which made it the wisest policy of government to maintain the prices of produce in its earlier stages, have ceased to exist.
At a time, then, when the impolicy of the interference of government, in directing the industry of any class of the community to other channels than those to which the interests of the parties would naturally lead them, has been so generally recognized, and so extensively acted upon by the legislature at home, it is scarcely to be expected by the colonist of New South Wales, that artificial inducements are to be held out to his industry in the form of a bounty on the growth of wheat, even though it were possible so to distribute the benefits of it, that there should be no no real or apparent ground for murmuring.
It appears to me, that there is even much room to doubt, whether the payment of a high price, by the commissariat, would be really advantageous to the settler. At no very distant period, the stimulus afforded by it must be withdrawn, and the re-action felt; and its evident tendency, in the meantime, would be to keep the settler from seeking out other objects of industry, and ascertaining the real grounds on which his ultimate prosperity must rest.
For a steady remunerating price of wheat, and, consequently, regular supply of the market, there can be hope till some other production of the soil is raised, which shall share with it the
