The vessels of neutral powers ought to be encouraged, in my
opinion, to trade to the settlement; they would serve the colony,
by giving encouragement to the settlers; there would once again
be a beneficial competition; there would be a channel for the
carrying off the surplus produce of the country, and industry
might again look forward with joyous expectation to the harvest
of its toil. These vessels might be laden back with spermaceti or
other oils, seal skins, coals, ship-timber, fustic, or any other
articles the produce of the settlements and the Southern Seas;
and thus a traffic might be established and carried on with
reciprocal benefit, and the independence of New South Wales must
be greatly aided in consequence of these beneficial
regulations.

It may perhaps be argued, that the indiscriminate admission of
the trade of neutral vessels might tend to injure the British
ships trading to this colony; but such a consequence, I think,
may easily be averted, since the governor has power to prevent
those ships from selling any such articles as he may deem it
expedient to prohibit; and no injury could consequently be
sustained, while it would hold out the necessity of selling the
European goods at a reasonable rate, or the wants of the colony
might be supplied from another market. The arrival of neutral
ships with merchandize would also tend to prevent the too
frequent monopolies which take place in this quarter, of the
nature of which and their mischievous effects upon the general
prosperity of the colony, I have spoken in a former part of this
chapter; and I feel a great regret that circumstances at this
moment prevent me from enlarging upon so destructive a subject,
and exposing the very root of so pernicious an evil, which has