BERKIMA AXD MITTAGONGL Ill 



in the present posture of affairs, when the settlers, from the want 

 of suitable roads, are unable to send their produce to a good 

 market, there would be much difficulty in raising a salary for a 

 minister, or, even without aid from the Government, of founding 

 a school ; yet I cannot help thinking that a people who seem to 

 appreciate religious services so highly, and who are pleased even 

 with an occasional visit from a minister, will eventually adopt 

 means to secure the accomplishment of their wishes. At all 

 events, it is a subject for consideration for the committee of the 

 Church Society, and other societies which are intended to afford 

 means of propagating the G-ospel in the interior. If one of the 

 objects of free selection is to encourage the emigration of respect- 

 able families with a little capital from the mother country, it 

 seems highly important to give due prominence to the moral as- 

 pect of the question. The class of people best adapted for the 

 kind of life indicated are little farmers, or men accustomed to 

 hard work, who have saved something by their industry, and are 

 desirous of possessing farms of their own. But it can scarcely 

 be expected that the best description of such persons will be in- 

 duced to surrender all the endearments of home, and to seek their 

 fortunes in a distant country, unless they hear that some prelim- 

 inary measures are in progress for the moral and spiritual benefit 

 of those intending to emigrate. 



Having digressed a little from my subject, to glance at the 

 free selectors, I must now refer to other plants found on the 

 range. In addition to the Messmate, the Sassafras (Dorypliora 

 sassafras), is very common in some parts where the sandstone 

 gives way to the trap formation. This fine tree affords timber for 

 flooring boards and house purposes, and the bark is used in de- 

 coctions for its medicinal properties. There is also the tree 

 called "Beech" (Schizomena ovata), which is nearly allied to 

 Cemtopetaliim apetalum. Both of these have soft, light, and close- 

 grained wood, not merely useful for cabinet work, but also much 

 in request for coach-building. They may be noticed likewise in 

 the neighbourhood of Manly Beach, and 011 the Toongabbee 

 Creek ; but all the trees of this kind in the vicinity of Sydney 

 and Parramatta, are very much stunted in their appearance, when 

 compared with those of the mountains, for at Mount Tomah and 

 the Mittagoug Range, the same species become forest trees, 



