328 Foreign Notices : — Australia. 



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that wine will hereafter become the most important export of Australia. 

 Had the settlers been brought up in climates where the vine and olive are 

 Cultivated, wine and oil would long ago have been among the exports of the 

 colony. But the Brtish population had directed their attention chiefly to 

 their native agricultural pursuits : and hence the delay of other productions 

 more congenial to the soil and climate, and of greater importance to the 

 trade of the colony. It does not appear that the attention of the British 

 settlers has been yet sufficiently diverted from those pursuits, so that the 

 Society's exertions will most probably be directed to those purposes which 

 the circumstances of soil and climate render more particularly recommend- 

 able. {Morn. Chron., May 7.) 



Sydney, October 22. 1828. — You have, no doubt, heard that New South 

 Wales has been suffering from drought for the last three years. We have 

 just had a month's rain, and the country has changed from an arid desert to 

 the most beautiful and luxuriant green. The wheat is ripening ; and we 

 shall, no doubt, have a plentiful harvest in another month's time. After the 

 very excellent description of the scenery and peculiarities of New South 

 Wales which you will find in Cunningham's work; I am almost afraid to enter 

 on that subject. The foliage has been represented as very, nay, preposter- 

 ously ugly ; and so, indeed, it is ; though the fault does not rest with the 

 nature of the foliage, but in the circumstance that our timber is not only all 

 primeval, but the natives are accustomed to set it on fire, for the purpose of 

 attracting the kangaroos when the new grass springs up : so that you may 

 imagine that forests, presenting an assemblage of burnt and dead trees of 

 the most awkward and fantastic shapes, mixed with and rising above more 

 youthful foliage, cannot be very picturesque, but rather grotesque. This is 

 the general appearance of all the forests at present ; and, until the whole 

 face of the country undergoes the renovation of settlers, it must continue 

 so. But, far from being ugly, the foliage is really beautiful. Nothing 

 can be more so than the young gum trees, with large leaves ; they have a 

 good deal the character of the birch, and the leaves, hanging at an angle 

 to catch the sun's rays, glitter splendidly. The swamp oak (Casuarina 

 stricta?), tea tree (Thea viridis Z.), apple tree, &c. &c, are all of them 

 excellent varieties ; and I have seen spots that were cleared on the first 

 establishment of the colony, and that are now wooded, present as beautiful 

 masses of foliage as you would wish to behold. Then we have the fan or 

 cabbage palm, the burwan, the grass tree, and the fern tree, all of them 

 the most beautiful things in nature ; the wide-spreading fig tree, seemingly 

 a species of mangrove ; and vines that would induce you to believe that 

 you were contemplating the famous banyan of India : we have all these 

 to add variety to our endless forests. Then, as to flowers, who that has 

 not seen the warratan enlivening our gloomy glens with its magnificent 

 crimson flowers, can form any idea of the power which it possesses in 

 making even our rocks seem interesting ? The others are mostly small, but 

 present an endless variety ; and, about July and August, the whole neigh- 

 bourhood of Sydney is a perfect flower-garden : not growing here and there 

 like a solitary primrose or violet, but covering the whole surface with one 

 mass of varying colour. Every week is sure to present two or three new 

 varieties ; and though the spring months are most flourishing, this is the case 

 all the year round, Then there are all the shrubs, the banksias and acacias 

 or wattles, adding their share towards the completion of this wild garden. 

 The scenery around Sydney is very pretty, there being great variety of 

 surface created by the varied figure of the waters that surround it. What 

 beautiful little spots there are, in which one fancies life would slide easily 

 away in the improvement of one ! There are no large spaces calculated to 

 form a park; but for the grounds of a villa, from 10 to 15 acres, the variety 

 of surface and diversity of view is charming. Many bits are now being given 

 away on the conditions of building to a certain amount, and I hope to put 



