Chapter IV. Hints for the Improvement of the Colony.

Having thus touched upon the progress of the Colony and its
present state, I shall now beg to add such Hints respecting its
future improvement, as have suggested themselves to my mind
during a residence of ten years in the settlement, in which
period I have been enabled, from the nature of the various
situations I have held there, to render myself intimately
acquainted with all those particulars which are essential to the
formation of a correct opinion on this interesting subject. And
to the execution of this task I feel the more particularly urged,
since I have beheld, with pain, that those who seem to be most
deeply impressed with the necessity which exists, for the
adoption of some measures to further the interests of the colony,
have entirely mistaken the line which ought to be followed, and
have marked out to themselves a course of procedure, which is
founded on a total misconception of the nature of the colony, and
a very superficial knowledge of its present state. That a period
of twenty-two years has not been sufficient to render New South
Wales independent of the mother country, is a reflection which
must produce strong and ungenial suspicions of the prudence of
those methods which have been pursued to accelerate such a
desirable end; and the continuance of the late system, the
inefficiency of which has been amply illustrated by recent
events, and facts which are incontrovertible, is, of all evils,
the most sincerely to be deprecated and guarded against. Of the
capability of the settlement to produce adequate means for the
subsistence of its members, there can be but a single opinion
amongst persons who are enabled, from experience, to judge of the