MR. LATEOBE AS SUPERINTENDENT 255 



and in a very short time they began to recover a fairly profitable 

 quotation. That sheep should be sold for Is. 6d. or 2s. per head, 

 when their fleece in England was worth 3s., and the tallow about 

 4s. more, seemed evidence of a disheartening want of enterprise; 

 and as soon as the reliability of these figures was demonstrated 

 the waste of good mutton was a matter of very minor consideration. 

 Hundreds of thousands of carcasses were burned or used to manure 

 the ground after the merchantable portion of them had been packed 

 in bales and barrels and added to the list of the colony's exports. 

 Gradually the clouds of depression and distrust lifted, and confi- 

 dence in the resources of the colony came back to bankers and mer- 

 chants alike. The settlers, warned by the terrible ordeal they had 

 passed through, renounced those extravagant habits of living which 

 had grown up with the hasty riches of the land-speculating era, and 

 returned to the exercise of that frugality and thrift which has been 

 so important a factor in the success of English Colonies. 



During the half-dozen years that intervened between the adop- 

 tion of the boiling-down system and the discovery of the goldfields, 

 the progress of the Port Phillip settlement was improvingly pros- 

 perous; and its prosperity was the unmistakable result of steady 

 industry, and the adherence to a branch of production for which 

 the country was specially adapted. It owed nothing to legislation 

 for much that was passed in Sydney was distinctly adverse to 

 Port Phillip. Indeed, as showing how injudicious and even dan- 

 gerous is the attempt to legislate against " bad times," it is worth 

 recording here that during the darkest period of the depression 

 a Bill was passed by the newly formed Legislative Council, entitled 

 " An Act to restore public confidence," which proposed to establish 

 a Board of Commissioners empowered to issue notes, to be made 

 a legal tender between individuals, and also at the Treasury for 

 payment of taxes. These notes were to be issued to impecunious 

 settlers on application, on their executing to the board a mortgage 

 over their freehold properties. As was vigorously pointed out at 

 the time, the Government was expected to become the nominal 

 mortgagee of all the land in the country, but in reality its purchaser, 

 with money which was to be provided by those members of the 

 community who were able to pay their way without borrowing. 



