12 GENERAL REMARKS. [CHAP. I. 



which the place soon became crowded. A town 

 was made, and nothing was done to support it ; a 

 price was given for town land which precluded every 

 chance of its gradually rising in value ; on the con- 

 trary, as was foreseen by all who knew the resources 

 of the country, it must decrease as soon as people 

 opened their eyes, and thus cause the ruin of the 

 unfortunate purchaser. How could it be otherwise, 

 when a small building allotment actually sold, a 

 short time afterwards, at the rate of 20,000/. per 

 acre ? The auction in the first place, and the land- 

 jobbers in the second, drained the place of its scanty 

 supply of specie ; every article of consumption was 

 imported and paid for in ready money, as nothing 

 else could be given in exchange, and on account of 

 the bad state of commercial affairs in Sydney, scarcely 

 any credit could be obtained. 



Who, on learning these plain facts, would feel 

 inclined to emigrate to New Zealand when he can 

 get land at a much cheaper rate in Canada, or even 

 in Van Diemen's Land, or at the Cape of Good 

 Hope, where he has the advantage of pasturage ? 



The establishment of colonies has at all times 

 given scope for speculation, and it is not more than 

 fair that the first immigrants into a new country 

 should derive some benefit from their superior en- 

 terprise and discernment ; but in this case the benefit 

 was not conferred upon the colonists, but upon a 

 class of people appropriately called land-sharks. 

 The true birth-place of these jobbers seems to be the 



