CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 333 



lation is annually increasing — its public buildings are equal to many 

 of the same class in the country towns of England, and intelligence 

 is making rapid strides through all the departments of the arts and 

 sciences — men distinguished for their talents and learning, men 

 who would be so distinguished in this country, are to be met with 

 in most of the principal towns — and in a few years there is every 

 probability of their becoming as polished and enlightened as the 

 intellectual Canadians. 



As a proof of the salubrity of New South Wales, Mr. ^Martin 

 states that of a community of 1 200 persons, only five or six have , 

 been known to be sick at a time, and at some of the military sta- 

 tions, seven years have elapsed without the loss of a man. Old people 

 arriving in the colony from Europe, have suddenly found themselves 

 restored to much of the hilarity of youth, and there are many persons 

 now living upwards of 100 years of age. Amongst these ancients 

 is a woman now living as a servant at a public house, on the Sydney 

 and Paramatta road, who is said to be 125 years of age, and yet 

 performs her daily work with the agility of her younger years. 



Half a century ago — less than half a century ago — the territory 

 of New South Wales was a pathless forest, and its denizens wild and 

 roving savages — and now its surface is covered with excellent roads 

 and bridges, ( the former, in some places, crossing lofty mountains, 

 and rivalling the far famed Simplon) along which there is a daily 

 increasing traffic, bringing into close intercourse the remotest part of 

 the colony, while the introduction of locomotive power, by sea and 

 land, will tend to accelerate the progress of a civilization of which 

 every Briton must feel proud. There is a regular post to every 

 part of the colony — a general two-penny pqst in Sydney — there are 

 also mails and four-horse coaches, caravans and steam- vessels, print- 

 ing offices in which newspapers are printed — and a college in Sydney 

 called the Australian College, and numbers of primary, parochial, 

 and private schools. A mechanic's school of arts was instituted in 

 1833, and a female school of industry owes its origin to Mrs. General 

 Darling, when her husband was governor of the colony. Societies 

 connected with religion, humanity, literature and science, abound 

 also in the different towns. — The staple products of New South 

 Wales, are wool, whale oil, cattle, and provisions, of which the first 

 is the most valuable, and promises at no distant day to bring great 

 wealth to the colony. At present the Australian colonies furnish 

 nearly one-tenth of the entire importation of foreign wool into the 

 ports of London and Liverpool ; and such are the great improve- 

 ments in navigation, that the expense of sending the fleece to 

 London from Australia, a distance of 15000 miles, is not more than 

 3fc?. per lb., including freight, insurance, brokerage, commission, 

 dock, and landing charges; while the expense of transmitting 

 German or Spanish wools is from 4rf. to A^d. per lb. The bank of 

 Australia, discounts from £10,000 to £12,000 weekly, at 10 per 

 cent., which is the current rate of interest in New South Wales ; 

 and there is another banking firm, established by a London compa- 

 ny, called the Bank of Austral-asia, with a capital of £200,000. 



