96 NEW ENGLAND (n.S.W.), ETC. 



the squatters, and the several townships with very few exceptions 

 were mere hamlets. In fact the country was practically open 

 from the northern border of New South Wales to that of 

 Victoria. Now settlers living in their comfortable homes are met 

 with in every district ; the country from end to end is divided by 

 thousands of fences into large and small paddocks, and what 

 were primitive villages containing only a handful of inhabitants 

 are now populous and generally speaking, prosperous towns. 

 Then the railways and telegraph lines — the former carry 

 passengers and goods in as many hours as weeks were needed in 

 the days of bullock teams, and while the quick special messengers 

 of the past with their relays of horses would have been getting 

 ready for a start, the message is sent and delivered by wire ! 

 What then may we not expect within another fifty years ! 



