doubtless be interesting to the mercantile reader to ascertain the extent and condition of its banking establishments. Of these there are four in the colony, besides the Savings' bank, and the Bathurst bank for the settlements beyond the Blue Mountains in the interior. The returns from these establishments, for which I am indebted to the diligence of a gentleman in Sydney, whose name I am not at liberty to mention, will afford all the information on the subject which can be desired.*

The Estimate of the Expenditure of the Colony for the year 1837, ordered to be printed by the Legislative Council in June 1836, together with the ways and means to meet that Expenditure, as estimated by the Governor, will be found in the Appendix, No. 19.

*See Appendix, No. 18.

CHAPTER X.

VIEW OF THE PRESENT

STATE OF

AGRICULTURE

AND OF THE AGRICULTURAL INTEREST IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land-a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oilolive and honey; a land, wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land, whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.-Deuteron. viii. 8, 9.

THE whole territory of New South Wales is divided, like that of Great Britain, into counties and parishes; the number of counties* being twenty. These divisions however, are scarcely ever referred to in the common intercourse of colonial life. Except in Government deeds or legal documents, the grand natural divisions of the country are the only ones known or recognised by the colonists, who accordingly speak only of the districts of the Hawkesbury, of Hunter's River, of Bathurst, of Illawarra, of Argyle, and of Port Macquarie. The district of the Hawkesbury comprises a consider

Their names, with their contents in square miles and acres, will be found in the Appendix, No. 20.

able extent of champaign country along the eastern base of the Blue Mountains, on either side of the noble river from which it derives its name. This tract of country was for a long time the granary of the colony, and has uniformly been under cultivation; being subdivided for the most part into small farms of thirty to a hundred acres, the proprietors or tenants of which subsist almost exclusively by agriculture. The forest-land in this district, or the land beyond the reach of inundations, is devoted chiefly to grazing; the flooded land along the banks of the river being the most suitable for cultivation. I have already observed, that the Hawkesbury is formed of the confluence of various minor streams issuing chiefly from the gloomy and untraversed ravines of the Blue Mountains; and I have also observed, that that mountain-range, which runs parallel to the coast at about forty miles' distance inland, consists of vast masses of sandstone rock, covered in every direction with large trees. In the summer months, and especially in seasons of drought, extensive conflagrations occur occasionally on the mountain-ranges either from accident or from design, the aborigines frequently setting fire to the herbage to enable them the more easily to hunt down the native game; and in seasons of flood vast quantities of the pulverized residuum of burnt vegetable matter, mixed with the washings of the sandstone rocks of the mountains, are accordingly carried down to the river by its numerous tributary mountain-torrents, and afterwards spread over the champaign country in the form of alluvial deposit. It is from these successive deposits or top-dressings that the district of the Hawkesbury de

rives its fertility; for the system of agriculture that prevails along the banks of the river is as slovenly as can well be imagined, the surface being for the most part merely scratched, and nothing like a proper rotation of crops being ever dreamt of. Wheat, year after year for twenty years together, and sometimes wheat and maize in succession off the same ground during the same year, is the Sangrado system of husbandry that prevails on the Hawkesbury.

The district of Hunter's River to the northward of Port Jackson comprises a much larger extent of flooded land, and the forest-land beyond the reach of inundation is in general of much superior quality and of much greater extent. The land in this district is divided for the most part into large farms of from 500 to 2000 acres and upwards. These farms, or estates, as they are somewhat ambitiously styled in the colony, are principally held by respectable free emigrants from the mother country, each of whom maintains and employs on his farm a number of convict-labourers in the capacity of farm-servants. These labourers are generally under the management of a hired overseer, who is always supposed to be well acquainted with the various processes of Australian agriculture. In this district, grain, chiefly wheat and maize, is cultivated to a great extent; but in the upper parts of the district, at a distance from the navigable part of the river, the settlers depend chiefly on their flocks and herds, and cultivate only as much grain as is requisite for the supply of their respective establishments. Dairies are frequent throughout this extensive district; and large quantities of butter and cheese of

superior quality are forwarded regularly by the steamboats to Sydney, where it is either sold by commissionagents in wholesale, or retailed on behalf of the settler by some trusty person in the market.

The district of Bathurst consists partly of an undulating plain of about nineteen miles in length, and of a breadth varying from four to eight miles, beyond the Blue Mountains. It is naturally destitute of timber, and is traversed in the direction of its length by the river Macquarie; the banks of which are occasionally lined with swamp oaks, (an indigenous tree somewhat resembling the Scotch fir, but rather more ornamental,) which tend greatly to diversify, and of course to beautify the scene. The land in this district, with the exception of small portions in particular localities allotted to veteran soldiers and emancipated convicts, is parcelled out into large farms of 2000 acres each, the proprietors of which, being almost uniformly highly respectable free emigrants, have each numerous convict-servants and extensive flocks and herds. The extent of the land-carriage to Sydney precludes the Bathurst settlers from cultivating more land than is absolutely necessary for the subsistence of their respective establishments; but the dairy produce of the district, consisting chiefly of cheese of superior quality, is regularly forwarded to the dealers in Sydney. Large herds of black cattle are also fatted for slaughter on the native pasture of the open forest-country around the plain, and numerous waggon-loads of fine wool are annually forwarded to Sydney in the proper season to be shipped for London.

The district of Argyle extends to a great distance to